254  VERMIFUGE  PROPERTIES  OF  PUMPKIN  SEEDS. 
but  the  boy,  who  bad  been  ill  three  weeks  only,  was  in  a  state 
of  alarming  emaciation.  Pomegranate-bark  had  been  exhibited, 
but  its  only  effect  was  to  induce  severe  colic.  M.  Bouvier  then 
prescribed  pumpkin-seed  paste,  prepared  by  bruising  an  ounce 
of  the  seeds  denuded  of  their  cuticle  with  sugar,  and  adding  two 
ounces  of  milk.  On  the  previous  day,  the  child  had  taken  two 
teaspoonfuls  of  castor  oil,  and  was  kept  on  low  diet.  The  oil 
was  repeated  on  the  day  which  followed  the  exhibition  of  the 
paste,  and  no  food  was  allowed. 
The  medicine  was  taken  without  repugnance,  and  produced 
neither  colic  nor  nausea.  Several  motions  were  induced,  in  each 
of  which  fragments  of  the  tapeworm  were  detected,  and  the  head 
and  booklets  were  found  next  day  in  a  hard  stool.  The  mother 
having  thus  acquired  the  certainty  that  a  cure  was  effected,  at 
once  displayed  the  undoubted  proofs  of  the  happy  results  of  the 
medicine  to  Dr.  Bouvier. 
Dr.  Desnos  reports  two  closely  analogous  cases  in  the  "Jour- 
nal de  Chemie  Me'dicale."  The  patients  were  a  saddler,  aged 
33,  and  an  operative,  aged  22.  In  the  former,  the  leading  fea- 
ture was  an  enormous  increase  of  appetite;  he  consumed  as 
much  as  twenty-four  pounds  of  solid  food  in  the  course  of  the 
day.  The  taenia  was  passed  after  two  days7  treatment.  Forty- 
eight  hours  after  his  admission  into  the  hospital,  the  patient 
drank  a  bottle  of  seidlitz -water,  and  took  an  emulsion  prepared 
with  ten  drachms  of  pumpkin- seeds,  five  drachms  of  castor-oil, 
and  the  same  quantity  of  honey. 
The  medicine  was  exhibited  in  the  morning,  and  in  the 
afternoon  the  patient  passed  two  metres  of  taenia,  with  the  head 
of  the  parasite. 
In  the  second  case,  kousso  had  been  resorted  to  without  bene- 
fit. On  the  9th  of  July,  two  days  after  the  patient's  admission, 
he  was  deprived  of  food,  and  on  the  10th  took  an  emulsion  of 
pumpkin- seeds  denuded  of  their  cuticle,  in  six  ounces  of  water, 
and  half  an  hour  later  three  tablespoonfuls  of  castor  oil,  mixed 
with  an  equal  quantity  of  peppermint- water.  On  the  11th,  the 
worm  was  passed  entire,  rolled  up  in  a  ball ;  the  patient  suffered 
some  pain,  but  less  violent  colics  than  he  had  previously  ex- 
perienced from  the  kousso.  On  the  12th,  castor-oil  was  again 
administered,  and  no  relapse  has  since  taken  plaee. 
