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Oxyuris vermicularis (Linnaeus, 1767). 
O. Seiffert (1908) draws attention to the lesions in the mucous 
membrane of the rectum caused by these very common worms 
and to the fact of the intestinal catarrh they frequently set up. 
Wagener (1904) found amongst the Peyer’s patches of a hog, five years 
old, 15—20 small nodules which when investigated microscopically 
revealed the calcified remains of Oxyuris worms. He considered that 
the worms had penetrated into the follicles, formed ulcers there, and 
when the ulcers healed had undergone calcareous degeneration. 
Ruffer (1901) also records a number of tumours in the rectum of a 
man, the tumours varying in size from a pin’s head to a walnut. The 
tumours contained ova of Oxyuris ; since these could not have got there 
by themselves the probability is that they were laid in situ by some 
female which had penetrated the rectal wall. Frohlich is quoted by 
Weinberg as describing a case in which he found 16 Oxyuris, all females, 
living surrounded by pus in a tumour in the peritoneum of a child of 
11 years of age. Edens (1896) found the head of an Oxyuris in a nodule 
of a Peyer’s patch in a child of seven years whose intestine presented the 
typical lesions of primary, intestinal tuberculosis. There are many 
more examples, but these seem to me sufficient to show that Oxyuris 
can and, not unfrequently, does perforate the wall of the alimentary 
canal. 
Relation of entozoa to Appendicitis in Man. 
The relations of this worm with appendicitis may now be considered. 
The worms live in the lower part of the small intestine, in the caecum 
and in the appendix vermiformis. When the eggs begin to develop in 
the fertilized female the worms leave the caecum and appendix and 
passing through the colon arrive at the rectum ; here they may lay their 
eggs but most of them creep out of the body to lay them elsewhere. 
Galli-Valerio (1903) has described a case of an appendix which had 
been perforated and which contained many Oxyurids, the tail of one of 
the male specimens was threaded through the mucosa and microscopic 
sections showed spaces resembling the perforation which were surrounded 
by an infiltrated zone infected with bacteria. Weinberg (1906, 1907) 
gives at length an account for which he is indebted to Dr Thevenard of 
a boy aged 11 years, who was after much suffering operated on for ap¬ 
pendicitis. On examining the appendix about 1'5 cm. from the free end 
