The volatile spirit was added here to make the oil saponaceous, and by that means more easily miscible with the juices in the stomach and primæ viæ. This medicine answered our expectations, and in a few days brought away several worms.
—— Lacy, a poor boy of the parish of Feckenham in this county, aged 13 years, was, as I was informed, about three or four years ago seized with convulsive fits, which gradually deprived him of his senses, and reduced him to a state of idiocy. He had taken several anthelmintics and purgatives, particularly the Pulv. Cornachin. but never had voided any worms, though all the symptoms seemed plainly to shew, that they were the cause of his disorder. As he greedily swallowed any thing, which was offered him, without distinction, I at first ordered him a mixture of linseed oil ℥vij Tinct. sacr. ℥j: of which he took four large spoonfuls night and morning. He persisted in the use of this one whole week without at all nauseating it, towards the latter end of which time he voided one round worm of a great length. He now began to shew much aversion to the medicine; on which account the Tinctur. sacr. was omitted, and he was ordered to take the oil alone in the same quantities. This he continued to do a fortnight longer, during which time he voided 60 more worms, and in a great measure recovered the use of his reason[223]. This account I had from the Apothecary, who, by my directions, supplied him with the medicines.
Soon after this I ordered the same medicine to be given to Elizabeth Abell, a poor girl in the same neighbourhood, reduced by epileptic fits to such a state of idiocy, as to eat her own excrements. It caused her to void several worms, but she did not recover her senses.
Since this time I have given the oil to several persons with good success, and therefore I cannot but recommend a further tryal of it; since it is a remedy, which may be used with safety in almost any quantity; a character, which very few of the anthelmintic medicines deserve.
It is probable, that some oils are more destructive to worms than others. Andry (Traité de la Generation des Vers, cap. 8) prefers nut oil, and tells us, that a human worm, voided alive, being put into that oil, died instantly; whereas another worm, voided at the same time, lived several hours in oil of sweet almonds, though in a languishing state. This difference he afterwards (Cap. 9) endeavours to account for, by supposing, that the oil of almonds is more porous, and consequently less able to preclude the entrance of air into the worms. And indeed there is some reason to conclude, that oils, which dry in the open air, such as nut and linseed oils, are of a closer texture, less mixed with water, and consequently more anthelmintic, than those oils, which freeze by cold, and will not dry in the open air;[224] such as those from olives or almonds. Andry tells us, that at Milan the mothers have a custom to give their children once or twice a week toasts dipt in nut oil, with a little wine, to kill the worms: and I know a lady in the country, who gives the poor children in her neighbourhood the same oil with great success.
I would recommend this remedy to be used in as large doses as the stomach will well bear: to which purpose it may be adviseable to join it either with aromatics, bitters, or essential oils, such as the case may require. Andry orders the oil to be taken fasting, assigning this for a reason, that the stomach being then most empty, it more readily embraces and stifles the worms. During this course it will be necessary, at proper intervals, to give rhubarb, mercurial or aloetic medicines.
I cannot close this paper without observing, that, from the history of the Norfolk Boy, we may learn, in similar cases, where the head is not idiopathic, never to despair absolutely of a cure, notwithstanding the disease has been of very long standing. For in this boy, though the oppression in the brain and nerves had continued many years, and had been so violent, as to deprive him not only of his intellectual faculties, but almost all his sensations; yet were not the organs much impaired thereby, but he recovered all his senses again, as soon as the irritation and spasms in the intestines, which first caused all these terrible symptoms, were removed. The same thing in a less degree was observable in the Feckenham Boy, mentioned before; and we have had two remarkable instances of the same kind at the Worcester Infirmary; where a boy and his sister, of the name of Moyses, received a perfect cure, and recovered the entire use of their senses, after having been rendered idiots (though not in so high a degree as the Norfolk Boy) for more than two years, by epileptic fits proceeding from worms.
J. Wall.
Worcester Dec. 7, 1748.
P. S. As the following history has some analogy with the subject we are now upon, I beg leave to subjoin it by way of postscript.