189 
THE OCCURRENCE OF OX YURIS VERMICULARIS 
IN THE HUMAN VERMIFORM APPENDIX. 
By J. ALEXANDER INNES, B.Sc., 
and A. ELMSLIE CAMPBELL, M.A., B.Sc., M.B., Ch.B. 
(From the Parasitology Laboratory, University of Aberdeen.) 
This investigation was commenced by one of us (J. A. I.) in 1910, 
and carried on for three and a half years. Our purpose was to determine 
as accurately as possible the percentage of appendices operated on for 
appendicitis which contained intestinal parasites. The results of a 
study of 100 unselected cases are given below. 
Previous records. 
Isolated cases of intestinal parasites in the appendix have been 
reported from time to time during the past years, but these have served 
no useful purpose except to corroborate the fact that the appendix is 
a not infrequent habitat of certain parasitic worms. In 1634, Fabricius 
ab Aquapendente mentions that he occasionally found a worm in the 
appendix, but as to the species of worm he makes no reference. 
Santorini, in 1724, made the same observation. Birch-Hirshfeld, in 
1871, records an extremely rare condition of echinococcus of the appendix 
alone, without echinococcus of the liver. 
Still (1899) was the first to investigate, with any precision, the 
parasitology of the appendix. Working with both normal and patho* 
logical appendices of children, he came to certain conclusions : of these, 
the following are the more important: 
(1) That the appendix is a common habitat of 0. vermicularis in 
children. 
(2) That the appendix may serve, in some cases, as a breeding place 
for the worms. 
