Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 35?)
The tape worm is white, very long, and full of
joints. It is generally bred either in the stomach or
small intestines. The round and long worm is like¬
wise bred in the small intestines, and sometimes in
the stomach. The round and short worms commonly
lodge in the rectum, or what is called the end gut,
and occasion a disagreeable itching about the seat.
The long and round worms occasion squeamish-
ness, vomiting, a disagreeable breath, gripes, loose-
ness, swelling of the belly, swoonings, loathing o
food, and at other times a voracious appetite, a dry
cough, convulsions, epileptic fits, and sometimes r
privation of speech. These worms have been known
to perforate the intestines, and get into the cavity of
the belly. The effects of the tape-worm are nearly
the same with those of the long and round, but
rather more violent.
Andry says, the following symptoms particularly
attend the solium, which is a species of the tape¬
worm, viz. swoonings, privation of speech, and a
voracious appetite. The round worms, called asco-
rides, besides an itching of the anus, cause swoon¬
ings, and tenesmus, or an inclination to go to stool.
Causes.—Worms may proceed fromvarious causes;
but they are seldom found except in weak and re¬
laxed stomachs, where the digestion is bad. Seden¬
tary persons are more liable to them than the active
and laborious. Those who eat great quantities o
unripe fruit, or who live much upon raw herbs an<
roots, are generally subject to worms. There seem,
to be a hereditary disposition in some persons ti
this disease. I have often seen all the children of .
family subject to worms of a particular kind. The';
seem likewise frequently to be owing to the nurse.
Children of the same family, nursed by one woman,
have often worms, when those nursed by anothe
have none.