[ §40 ] 
a great meafure recovered the ufe of his reafon *. 
This account I had from the Apothecary, who, by 
my directions, fupplied him with the medicines. 
Soon after this I ordered the fame medicine to be 
given to Elizabeth Abell, a poor girl in the fame 
neighbourhood, reduced by epileptic fits to fuch a ftate 
of idiocy, as to eat her own excrements. It caufed 
her to void feveral worms, but fire did not recover 
her fenfes. 
Since this time I have given the oil to feveral per- 
fons with good fuccefs, and therefore I cannot but 
recommend a further tryal of it ; fince it is a reme- 
dy, which may be ufed with fafety in almoft any 
quantity ; a character, which very few of the anthel- 
mintic medicines deferve. 
It is probable, that fome oils are more definitive to 
worms than others. Andry (Traite de la Generation 
des Vers , cap. 8) prefers nut oil, and tells us, that a hu- 
man worm, voided alive, being put into that oil, died 
inftantly ; whereas another worm, voided at the fame 
time, lived feveral hours in oil of fweet almonds, 
though in a languifhing ftate. This difference he 
afterwards ( Cap . 9 ) endeavours to account for, by 
fuppofing, that the oil of almonds is more porous, 
and confequently lefs able to preclude the entrance of 
air into the worms. And indeed there is fome reafon 
to conclude, that oils, which dry in the open air, fuch 
as nut and linfeed oils, are of a clofer texture, lefs 
mixed with w T ater, and confequently more anthelmin- 
* I have fince been informed, that the boy’s parents being ex- 
tremely poor, the medicines were left off as foon as he began to 
recover ; and that, upon their difufe for fome time, he was again 
attacked with the fame fits as before. 
tic, 
