Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/797

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it is always eafy to know, even in the fmalleft pieces, which is the head and which the tail-end, and the new head and tail are always (een to come regularly from the proper ends. Phil. Tranf. N". 469. p. 479.

Generation of Worms. See the article Generation.

Worms, in phyfiology. Many effects have been by the igno- rant attributed to Worms, in which they have had no fharc ; and many things called Worms, have no right to that name.

We to this day vulgarly call the little biaclc prominent fpots in people's faces, Worms ; but they are not fo, nor any thing iiving. We owe the true knowledge of thefe to the faga- cicus Mr. Lewenhoek, who, examining them by the' mi- crofcope after taken out of the face, found them only to be bundles of hairs or imperfect hairs In fhiall portions enve- loped in thin films ; in fome, the fragments of hairs are evident, being ftrong and rigid ; but in others, they feem foil and pulpy.

Thefe Worms, as they are called, ufually appear as black fpscks, fometimes lying even with the red of the furface of the fkin, fometimes rifing above it ; the hairs in each of thefe are from twenty to forty, in number. Their roots iifually lie irregularly, one deeper than another ; but their extremities ufually are even. The deeper the Worms lie, the more difficult they are to be got out, and the fewer hairs they contain ; lb that they are heft obferved when taken from near the furface of the fkin, and when taken from people who have the blackeft hair, as they are moil distinctly discernible in thefe, from their ilrength and the difference of colour between them and their inveltient membranes.

It may always be known alfo when there are hairs in one of thefe Worms fit to be examined, for if there are, the Worm is rigid, and comes out ft rait ; but if not, it comes out bent.

The make and conformation of thefe Worms, as they are called, is probably in this manner. When the root of a hair being deep in the fkin fupplies fo much nouriihment as to make the hair grow out and appear on the face, the up- per part of the hair by rubbing, or fome other violence, comes to be broken off, the lower part of the trunk of it ftill remaining in the fkin, the nourimment afterwards fup- plied to this part for hairs does not tend to lengthen out the broken one, the fummit of that being ftill liable to the fame continual accidents ; but new ones are propagated by its fide, which being alfo broke off when they come to the furface, new ones are again formed and grow to the fame length, till from the bafis of what nature intended for one hair we fee thirty or forty; but this is probably not foon effected, but is the bufmefs of feveral years, in all which time the clufter of hairs is fuppofed to be an animal, and the Worm is laid to be growing.- T'he hairs growing on all parts of the body are fharp-pointed at their natural ends, but thole fhort ones which make up thefe Worms are always blunt at the end.

Worms, in medicine. There are a great variety of medi- cines given for destroying the Worms, which breed in hu- man bodies ; but as they are of very different kind;;, there is great caution required in feleftlng fuch as are moft proper for each peculiar cafe.

Acids, in general, are efteemed good in thefe cafes ; and lemon-juice, vinegar, and other vegetable acids, fuch as pomgranate and currant-juice, and the like, are given ; and fometimes the mineral ones, as the fpirit of vitriol, fu'phur, and the like. All thefe are properly given when there is a preternatural heat, and feverim difpofition ; for they not on- ly allay the heat, but refift putrefaction. Bitters in general are alfo reckoned among the medicines good againft Worms ; of this kind are wormwood, fmall centaury, rue, and the like ; and to thefe are to be added the purging bitters, fuch as rhubarb, aloes, and coloquin- tida. Thefe medicines do not act merely as bitters ; for it is well known, that many infects will endure the bittercft fubftances unhurt, and Worms will breed in the gall blad- der ; but they correct and alter the crude and vifcid matter in the inteftines by which thefe animals are nourifhed, and by Simulating the fibres of the inteftines they often difcharge

- the noxious matter, and Worms themfelves with it. They alfo correct the inactivity of the bile, which in children and per ions of moift habits is the general caufe of the breeding and living of thefe infects.

Oily medicines of all kinds are by fome greatly extolled in cafes of Worms ; and there feems this reafon for it, that all infects are deftroyed by being put into oil, and that flies and many other fmall animals, which, after feeming dead, on the being immeried in other liquors, would come to life again, on being expofed to the folar rays, never revived again after being drowned in oil. To this it is to be added, that very good effects always follow the giving oils, in cafes of the greateft torment from Wo?-ms. ft is not to be fuppofed how- ever, that the oil acts by covering and drowning the Worms, fince to this purpofe there muft be as much Iwallowed as would fill the whole inteftinal canal ; but this cannot be. Oils therefore plainly act in this cafe on the fymptoms, not SVFPL. Vol. II.

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on the caufe; and relax the fpafmodically contracted coats or the inteftines, and as it were defend and line them with a tort of mucilage, in fuch a manner that the more acrid purging medicines neceffary to the utter deft-ruffian of the animals themfelves, may be given with more fafety. Thus it is a very good method to give a child over night half an ounce or more of oil of fvvect almonds, and in the morning following a bnii purge of the refm of jalap, mercurius dulcis, or any thing elfe of this kind.

Saline fubftances in general are alfo greatly celebrated bv many m ca f cs f Warms, and the)r ^ im j ce( j capab]= £ a-nng ui a double capacity againft them, at once deftroyin s the tender ftructure of many of them, and vellicating the inteftines fo as to promote the difcharging them. The common bitter purging i'alts, as the glaubers fait, and the natural fait contained in the purging waters of different places, which is indeed glaubers fait alfo in its origin as well as qualities, are the beft of all others for this purpofe ; if the natural waters are drank, it fhould be in confiderable quantities ; and if the factitious fait be taken, it fhould be diiiolved in large portions of water.

Many people who live on the fea-coafts give their children fea-water, for the fame purpofe ; and fome ufe the broth of recent oylters with pepper and other (pices, and lemon-juice. Salts of the vitriolic kind have alfo long been celebrated as remedies for Warms--, and the common fait of fteel, as alfo the Pyrmont waters, which are highly impregnated with par, tides of that metal, are found very ufeful in all cafes of this kind.

But if any diforder admits of fpecific remedies we might expefl that this malady would ; for thefe purpofes many extol fome of the gums, as aua-fcetida, galbanum, and myrrh, and the leaves of fome plants, as wormwood and tanfey. Onions and garlick are alfo greatly com- mended; and bitter almonds and wormfeed, have lone; been famous. All thefe are found peculiarly deftructive of Warms, and no method of cure fucceeds well in which one or other of thefe has not a fhare. Among the minerals, we find alfo one remedy greater than all thefe, that is quiekfilver ; this has been given in many various forms, and found more or leis fuccefsful in alb Wa- ter, in which crude quiekfilver had been boiled, was firft given by Hclmont, and that with great fuccefs ; after this Meiboom infufed crude mercury in rhenifh wine, and found this more effectual than the former. But the moft fuccefs- ful method feems the giving proper doies of mercurius dul- cis, with fome purging medicines, as the refm of jalap. .ffithiops mineral, which is a mixture of quiekfilver and fulphur, is found alfo of great ufe ; and quiekfilver rubbed to a mixture with fugar-candy, is preferred by Hoffman to all the other preparations. After a cure by fheie means, the patient fhould be prevented from a relapfe, by abftainino- for a time from flefh and fifh ; and, after this, from milk and cheefe. Acrid purgatives, or hot remedies are never to be given, where there is any febrile heat ; and when there is caufe to fufpect that the duodenum is full of an acrid bile, then mercurials are to be avoided ; as are all the draftic purges ; for thefe medicines, in thefe circumftances, often bring on inflammations of the bowels.

Before the expelling the Warms from the fmall inteftines, it is proper to give glyfters of milk and honey, to allure all the worms together to that part. In cafes of the afcarides lodged in the inteftines, glyfters of milk with tanfey, gar- lick, and fcordium boiled in it, have great effects ; and gly- fters of brine, or fait and water with aloes added to it, are alio round of great benefit ; as thefe troublefome Warms are ufually lodged in the rectum, thefe glyfters take immediate effect.

It is proper alfo to give a vomit during the courfe of cure, to diflodge fuch Worms as may have got into the inteflinum caecum, fmce purging medicines cannot* reach them while they remain there. External applications alfo of bulls gall, aloes, and coloquintida, are of fervice laid in form of a ca- taplafm to the belly. Huffman. Oper. T. 4. Tin is often recommended as a good remedy againft Warms, particularly of the flat kind. Dr. Alfton, in the Med. EiT. Edinb. Vol. 5. Art. 7. directs an ounce and an half of the powder of pewter-metal to be mixed in half a Scotch mutchin, or about half a pint Englifh meafure of treacle, for children ; but to grown perfons, he gives two ounces of the powder of pure tin, put through the nneft hair-fieve, and mixed with eight ounces of treacle. As to the admini- ftration of this midicine, the original receipt directs half of it to be taken the Friday before the change of the moon; the day after, half of the remainder ; and the reft on Sunday. On the monday a purge is to be taken. The doctor thinks there is probably nothing in the particularities of the day ; but fays, the medicine fucceeds well in feveral fpecies of Worms. The Memoirs of the French Academy give a very remark- able account of an obftinate pain caufea by a Worm, in a place where few perfon, would have fufpected fuch an ani- mal for the caufe of it.

A woman of thirty-fix years old, who had not in any part

of her life been fubject to the head-ach in any particular de-

6 O gree.