Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [509]
Morland mentions the ejection of numerous lumbricoid worms from the mouth.
Worms have been found in the heart; and it is quite possible that in cases of trichinosis, specimens of the trichinae may be discovered anywhere in the line of cardiac or lymphatic circulation. Quoted by Fournier, Lapeyronnie has seen worms in the pericardial sac, and also in the ventricle. There is an old record of a person dying of intestinal worms, one of which was found in the left ventricle. a Castro and Vidal speak of worms in the aorta. Rake reports a case of sudden death from round-worm; and Brown has noted a similar instance.
The echinococcus is a tiny cestode which is the factor in the production of the well-known hydatid cysts which may be found in any part of the body. Delafield and Prudden report the only instance of multilocular echinococcus seen in this country. Their patient was a German who had been in this country five years. There are only about 100 of these cases on record, most of them being in Bavaria and Switzerland.
The filaria sanguinis hominis is a small worm of the nematode species, the adult form of which lives in the lymphatics, and either the adult or the prematurely discharged ova (Manson) block the lymph-channels, producing the conditions of hematochyluria, elephantiasis, and lymph-scrotum. The Dracunculus medinensis or Guinea-worm is a widely-spread parasite in parts of Africa and the West Indies. According to Osler several cases have occurred in the United States. Jarvis reports a case in a post-chaplain who had lived at Fortress Monroe, Va., for thirty years. Van Harlingen's patient, a man of forty-seven, had never lived out of Philadelphia, so that the worm must be included among the parasites infesting this country.
In February, 1896, Henry of Philadelphia showed microscopic slides containing blood which was infested with numbers of living and active filaria embryos. The blood was taken from a colored woman at the Woman's Hospital, who developed hematochyluria after labor. Henry believed that the woman had contracted the disease during her residence in the Southern States.
Curran gives quite an exhaustive article on the disease called in olden times "eaten of worms,"--a most loathsome malady. Herod the Great, the Emperor Galerius, and Philip II of Spain perished from it. In speaking of the Emperor Galerius, Dean Milman, in his "History of Latin Christianity," says, "a deep and fetid ulcer preyed on the lower parts of his body and ate them away into a mass of living corruption." Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," also says that "his (Galerius's) death was caused by a very painful and lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers and devoured by immense swarms of those insects who have given their names to this most loathsome disease." It is also said that the African Vandal King, the Arian Huneric, died of the disease. Antiochus, surnamed the "Madman," was also afflicted with it; and Josephus makes mention of it as afflicting the body of Herod the Great. The so-called "King Pym" died of this "morbus pedicularis," but as prejudice and passion militated against him during his life and after his death, this fact is probably more rumor than verity. A case is spoken of by Curran, which was seen by an army-surgeon in a very aged woman in the remote parts of Ireland, and another in a female in a dissecting-room in Dublin. The tissues were permeated with lice which emerged through rents and fissures in the body.
Instances of the larvae of the estrus or the bot-fly in the skin are not uncommon. In this country Allen removed such larvae from the skin of the neck, head, and arm of a boy of twelve. Bethune, Delavigne, Howship, Jacobs, Jannuzzi and others, report similar cases. These flesh-flies are called creophilae, and the condition they produce is called myiosis. According to Osler, in parts of Central America, the eggs of a bot-fly, called the dermatobia, are not infrequently deposited in the skin, and produce a swelling very like
Worms have been found in the heart; and it is quite possible that in cases of trichinosis, specimens of the trichinae may be discovered anywhere in the line of cardiac or lymphatic circulation. Quoted by Fournier, Lapeyronnie has seen worms in the pericardial sac, and also in the ventricle. There is an old record of a person dying of intestinal worms, one of which was found in the left ventricle. a Castro and Vidal speak of worms in the aorta. Rake reports a case of sudden death from round-worm; and Brown has noted a similar instance.
The echinococcus is a tiny cestode which is the factor in the production of the well-known hydatid cysts which may be found in any part of the body. Delafield and Prudden report the only instance of multilocular echinococcus seen in this country. Their patient was a German who had been in this country five years. There are only about 100 of these cases on record, most of them being in Bavaria and Switzerland.
The filaria sanguinis hominis is a small worm of the nematode species, the adult form of which lives in the lymphatics, and either the adult or the prematurely discharged ova (Manson) block the lymph-channels, producing the conditions of hematochyluria, elephantiasis, and lymph-scrotum. The Dracunculus medinensis or Guinea-worm is a widely-spread parasite in parts of Africa and the West Indies. According to Osler several cases have occurred in the United States. Jarvis reports a case in a post-chaplain who had lived at Fortress Monroe, Va., for thirty years. Van Harlingen's patient, a man of forty-seven, had never lived out of Philadelphia, so that the worm must be included among the parasites infesting this country.
In February, 1896, Henry of Philadelphia showed microscopic slides containing blood which was infested with numbers of living and active filaria embryos. The blood was taken from a colored woman at the Woman's Hospital, who developed hematochyluria after labor. Henry believed that the woman had contracted the disease during her residence in the Southern States.
Curran gives quite an exhaustive article on the disease called in olden times "eaten of worms,"--a most loathsome malady. Herod the Great, the Emperor Galerius, and Philip II of Spain perished from it. In speaking of the Emperor Galerius, Dean Milman, in his "History of Latin Christianity," says, "a deep and fetid ulcer preyed on the lower parts of his body and ate them away into a mass of living corruption." Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," also says that "his (Galerius's) death was caused by a very painful and lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers and devoured by immense swarms of those insects who have given their names to this most loathsome disease." It is also said that the African Vandal King, the Arian Huneric, died of the disease. Antiochus, surnamed the "Madman," was also afflicted with it; and Josephus makes mention of it as afflicting the body of Herod the Great. The so-called "King Pym" died of this "morbus pedicularis," but as prejudice and passion militated against him during his life and after his death, this fact is probably more rumor than verity. A case is spoken of by Curran, which was seen by an army-surgeon in a very aged woman in the remote parts of Ireland, and another in a female in a dissecting-room in Dublin. The tissues were permeated with lice which emerged through rents and fissures in the body.
Instances of the larvae of the estrus or the bot-fly in the skin are not uncommon. In this country Allen removed such larvae from the skin of the neck, head, and arm of a boy of twelve. Bethune, Delavigne, Howship, Jacobs, Jannuzzi and others, report similar cases. These flesh-flies are called creophilae, and the condition they produce is called myiosis. According to Osler, in parts of Central America, the eggs of a bot-fly, called the dermatobia, are not infrequently deposited in the skin, and produce a swelling very like