310 ENTOZOA, 



not only by the natural passages of the mouth, nostrils, and anus, 

 but also, it would seem, by perforating the intestinal walls. At all 

 events, plenty of cases are on record where these lumbrici, as they 

 are commonly, but erroneously called, have passed partly, or com- 

 pletely, into the abdominal cavity ; in other cases they have become 

 lodged within the various abdominal viscera, and even, also, within 

 the pleurae and pulmonary organs. In several instances they have 

 found their way into the parietes of the abdomen and adjacent 

 superficial parts, in which situations they have given rise to 

 abscesses, and have, therefore, usually been discharged by surgical 

 interference. 



As regards the unfavourable symptoms occasionally produced 

 by lumbrici, these, of course, will vary according to the situation 

 they happen to occupy, and they will also be considerably modified 

 by the age and temperament of the person infested. In the 

 stomach and intestines they give rise to colic and shooting pains 

 about the abdomen, followed generally by dyspepsia, nasal itching, 

 nausea, vomiting, and even diarrhoea. Sometimes also there is a 

 considerable amount of cerebral disturbance, attended with general 

 restlessness and convulsive twitchings during sleep. Thus Mr. 

 Woodman has recently recorded in the "Medical Times and 

 Gazette," a serious case of convulsions arising from lumbricoid 

 worms, in which, however, a cure was effected by expulsion of the 

 worms. If I recollect rightly, the same number of the same 

 journal records (anonymously) a case of epilepsy from a similar 

 cause ; whilst, an earlier volume of this periodical (1839) mentions 

 an instance where two lumbrici and one tapeworm were associated 

 in the production of similar phenomena. But a much more strik- 

 ing case is also given (anonymously) in the " London Medical 

 Gazette " for 1847 (page 415), where a single lumbricus caused its 

 bearer to be a lunatic for eight years, the patient suffering from 

 cataleptic fits which lasted for two or three weeks at a time. 

 Many other singular cases are quoted in our journals, amongst 

 which I may mention the allusion made to Petrequin, who, in 



