Most of these troops had been employed on a short campaign to the east of the great fish river. They had been compelled to live on very bad beef and mutton, driven and starved half to death; and Dr. Knox thinks he has proved, that the tænia in these cases did "arise from the use of unwholesome animal food; from the flesh of animals, which had been diseased." Two out of five of the troops, who had been thus employed and fed, were affected with worms. Of a detachment of 86 vigorous, healthy young men, 36 were found, on inquiry, to have tape worm. Those who remained in the colony did not suffer so much, as those who had been out on the campaign, the ratio being as one to four; whereas of the others, it was two to five. Dr. Knox had ample experience of the utility of turpentine during this singular prevalence of tænia. Concerning the 36 men above mentioned, he says, "the cure of all, who chose to adopt the means, was easily effected by small doses of the spts. of turpentine, after the failure of purgatives and various other remedies."
He considers ol. tereb. as the most efficacious remedy. He does not approve of large doses, because of headach, vertigo, and delirium, which have been produced by them in "many patients."
"I have generally found," says he, "that from one to two drachms of ol. tereb., given in a little water, morning and evening, for three successive days, were sufficient to destroy the tænia solium, (even in the most obstinate cases,) and cause it to leave the intestines, without the aid of any purgative medicine." He advises, however, to give a little castor oil each day about noon.
It has been a very common observation in regard to the dose of turpentine, that the patient suffers more cephalic distress when it is given in small quantity, than in a large dose. The writer of this has been obliged to desist from the exhibition of oil turpentine, in doses of ℨij twice a day, in consequence of a vertigo so considerable, as to alarm and distress his patient very much. Perhaps there might have been in this case some peculiar liability to nervous excitation, which in another patient would not have been worthy of much notice. Dr. Knox's opinion is of great weight.
The celebrated remedy of Chabert, Dr. Knox thinks, owes its efficacy to the ol. terebinth. combined with it.
Dr. Frank, whose name stands at the head of this article, was informed by the celebrated helminthologist, Dr. Bremser, at Vienna, in 1814, that he had for ten years preferred the use of Chabert's remedy, and with invariable success.
Chabert was a veterinary surgeon of Alfort, who used the animal oil of Dippel in many diseases of animals, as well as those of men. This oil he often gave for the purpose of removing tænia in his animals. He often combined it with spt. terebinth. and gave equal parts of these substances, in doses of ℨi.[20] The London Medical Repository states, that Chabert's remedy is prepared from
| Ol. Corn. Cerv. Fœtid. | 1 part. |
| Ol. Terebinth, | 3 parts. |
These are well mixed, and left at rest four days; they are then distilled in a sand bath, till three-fourths of the liquor has passed over. It must be kept tightly stopped, out of the light.[21]
The great objection to Chabert's remedy is its disgusting flavour; which is the more obnoxious, because the remedy must be continued for a length of time. Dr. Frank cured two persons affected with tænia solium, after considerable perseverance with it: he cured two other persons with a preparation as follows: