Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

614

Materia Medica

Anthelmintics. There are such medicines as remove or distroy worms in any part of the Alimentary Canal. I shall adopt an arangement accordingly, the worms have been divided into round and flat, the round are the Lumbrici, ascarides, and tricuris. The flat are the Tenia, and Cucurbitinus. The Lumbricoides reside in the duodenum, jejunum, and illeum, but are sometimes found in the large intestines, at which time they are making their escape from the body, their true habitation being rendered unpleasant by medicine, fever, or some other noxious quality, their length is generally from 10 to 12 inches and 30 or 40 in number. The ascarides occupy the rectum principally, but some are found in the stomach where they are called maw worms, they resemble small threads from ¼ to ½ inch in length of a white colour and round to appearance. The tricuris is a roundworm about 2 inches in length, with a long slender tail as long as the body and a proboscis which it retracts at pleasure, they are a verry rare occurrence I have never seen them, their residence is in the illeum. The Tenia is a flat worm, often 15 to 20 feet in length and rolled up like a bunch of tape, consisting of links which if broken will form an other worm. As to the origin of worms that would lead us too far from our subject, they are peculiar to the human intestines,