THE POISONS GIVEN OFF BY PARASITIC WORMS 
IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 
G. H. F. NUTTALL. 
Many of the symptoms affecting the human subject as well 
as animals who harbor parasitic worms have been attributed by 
certain authors to poisons which the latter develop within the 
body of their host. Peiper, of Greifswald, recently published 
_ an article in which he gathered together a good deal of evidence 
from scattered sources, evidence which very clearly proves that 
a number of worms do give off poisons. 
In the case of the Ascari (familiarly called round or maw 
worms), which are found in man, the pig, the cat, and horse, the 
evidence is very striking. There are a number of cases re- 
corded where children who suffered from convulsions, loss of 
consciousness, great loss of flesh, anzemia, and other symptoms, 
were promptly and permanently cured of all of these by the 
use of medicines (‘anthelmintics,” vulgarly called “worm 
medicines’’), which removed the parasites from the body. 
A number of authors have claimed that these parasites. 
were simply injurious through their presence as foreign bodies 
within the intestine, as well as through their boring, their active 
movements, and their robbing their host of his proper share of 
the food he had eaten. That these worms contain some poi- 
sonous substance was claimed by Miram, who whilst studying 
the Ascaris megalocephala suffered twice from attacks of 
sneezing, swelling of the eyelids, and excessive secretion of 
tears, besides severe itching and swelling of the fingers which 
had been in contact with the worms. Von Linstow noted that 
when these worms were cut open they gave off a sharp, pep- 
pery odor and caused tears to flow from his eyes. Inadver- 
tently touching his eye with a finger which had been in contact 
with these worms, a very severe inflammation of the conjunctiva, 
with a condition known as chemosis, resulted. Raillet, Arthus, 
247 
