THE GUINEA-WORM. 



527 



his own ankle. " I was (he says) in great torments 

 before it came out : my leg and ankle swelled,, and 

 looked very red and angry, and I kept a plaster to 

 bring it to a head. At last, drawing off my plaster, 

 out came about three inches of the worm, and my 

 pain abated presently. Till then I was ignorant 

 of my malady, and the gentlewoman at whose house 

 I was took it for a nerve ; but I knew enough what 

 it was, and presently rolled it up on a small stick. 

 After that I opened the place every morning and 

 evening, and strained it out gently about two 

 inches at a time, not without some pain, till at 

 length I had got out about two feet." He after- 

 wards had it entirely destroyed by one of the negroes, 

 who applied to it a kind of rough powder, not un- 

 like tobacco-leaves dried and crumbled very small. 

 M. D'Obsonville received in his right leg the germ 

 of one of these worms. He observed that its head 

 was of a chesnut colour, and that to the naked eye 

 it appeared to terminate in a small black point. On 

 pressing it a little with a pin, and examining it with 

 a common magnifying glass, he fancied he perceived 

 something like a little trunk or tongue, capable of 

 being pushed out or contracted. The body was not 

 thicker than a strong thread; but, when the animal 

 was extracted, it was found to be of the length of 

 two or three ells. It appeared to be formed of a 

 series of small rings, united to each other by an ex- 

 ceedingly fine membrane, and a single intestine ex- 

 tended through the body. It was extracted in the 

 usual way ; and the reason he gives for the injury done 

 by breaking these animals is that they are full of a 



