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TJENTCIDE  PROPERTIES  OF  PEPO. 
TJ3NTICIDE  PROPERTIES  OF  PEPO. 
With  Report  of  a  Case  in  which  it  was  Successfully  Used. 
By  E.  Ingals,  M.  D. 
Pepo — made  officinal  by  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1860 — has 
been  known  now  for  more  than  a  century,  to  possess  proper- 
ties destructive  to  the  tapeworm.  The  influence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  signatures  is  said  to  have  first  suggested  its  use  for  this 
purpose.  Inasmuch  as  there  was  observed  to  be  a  degree  of 
resemblance  between  the  pumpkin  seed  and  the  joints  of  which 
the  body  of  the  worm  was  made  up,  it  was  surmised  that  it 
would  be  the  proper  remedy  to  be  used  with  a  view  of  ridding 
the  system  of  this  troublesome  parasite — and  as  fortune  would 
have  it,  a  doctrine  that  has  its  foundation  only  in  ignorance 
and  superstition,  was  in  this  instance  the  parent  of  truth.  But 
though  the  pumpkin  seed  has  been  so  long  known  as  a  remedy 
for  tapewarm,  yet  it  has  never  been  extensively  employed  for 
this  purpose,  especially  in  this  country.  Its  use  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States  by  Dr.  J.  A.  Smith,  of  Boston,  in  1850. 
Since  that  time  a  considerable  number  of  cases  of  its  suc- 
cessful employment  have  been  reported  in  our  medical  jour- 
nals— such  reports,  coming  mostly  from  physicians  practising  in 
the  Eastern  portion  of  the  Republic,  and  we  have  reason  to 
think  that  the  remedy  has  been  used  there  more  than  at  the 
West  or  South.  The  seeds  contain  a  fixed  oil,  which  may  be 
obtained  from  them  by  expression,  and  to  this  is  said  to  be  due 
their  medicinal  virtue.  Some  cases  of  tapeworm  have  been 
successfully  treated  by  the  administration  of  this  oil,  a  fluid 
ounce  being  given  at  one  dose,  to  be  followed  in  two  hours  by 
some  active  cathartic ;  but  the  oil  is  not  known  to  possess  any 
advantages  over  the  seeds  in  substance. 
The  case  in  which  we  used  this  remedy  occurred  in  a  healthy 
boy,  eleven  years  old,  who,  for  two  months  before  his  parents 
brought  him  to  me,  had  been  voiding  a  number  of  joints  of  the 
worm  daily,  and  his  previous  symptoms,  as  related  to  me,  jus- 
tify the  conclusion  that  he  had  been  afflicted  with  it  more  than  a 
year,  though  no  treatment  had  been  resorted  to,  as  they  did 
not  suspect  the  nature  of  the  malady.  The  health  of  the  child 
did  not  suffer,  except  that  he  was  troubled  somewhat  at  night  by 
