Chapter XV (3)

In an article on the successful preventive treatment of tetanus neonatorum, or the "scourge of St. Kilda," of the new-born, Turner says the first mention of trismus nascentium or tetanus neonatorum was made by Rev. Kenneth Macaulay in 1764, after a visit to the island of St. Kilda in 1758. This gentleman states that the infants of this island give up nursing on the fourth or fifth day after birth; on the seventh day their gums are so clinched together that it is impossible to get anything down their throats; soon after this they are seized with convulsive fits and die on the eighth day. So general was this trouble on the island of St. Kilda that the mothers never thought of making any preparation for the coming baby, and it was wrapped in a dirty piece of blanket till the ninth or tenth day, when, if the child survived, the affection of the mother asserted itself. This lax method of caring for the infant, the neglect to dress the cord, and the unsanitary condition of the dwellings, make it extremely probable that the infection was through the umbilical cord. All cases in which treatment was properly carried out by competent nurses have survived. This treatment consisted in dressing the cord with iodoform powder and antiseptic wool, the breast-feeding of the baby from the first, and the administration of one-grain doses of potassium bromid at short intervals. The infant death-rate on the island of St. Kilda has, consequently, been much reduced. The author suggests the use of a new iodin-preparation called loretin for dressing the cord. The powder is free from odor and is nonpoisonous.

Human Parasites.--Worms in the human body are of interest on account of the immense length some species attain, the anomalous symptoms which they cause, or because of their anomalous location and issue. According to modern writers the famous Viennese collection of helminths contains chains of tenia saginata 24 feet long. The older reports, according to which the taenia solium (i.e., generally the taenia saginata) grew to such lengths as 40, 50, 60, and even as much as 800 yards, are generally regarded as erroneous. The observers have apparently taken the total of all the fragments of the worm or worms evacuated at any time and added them, thus obtaining results so colossal that it would be impossible for such an immense mass to be contained in any human intestine.

The name solium has no relation to the Latin solus, or solium. It is quite possible for a number of tapeworms to exist simultaneously in the human body. Palm mentions the fact of four tapeworms existing in one person; and Mongeal has made observations of a number of cases in which several teniae existed simultaneously in the stomach. David speaks of the expulsion of five teniae by the ingestion of a quantity of sweet wine. Cobbold reports the case of four simultaneous tapeworms; and Aguiel describes the case of a man of twenty-four who expelled a mass weighing a kilogram, 34.5 meters long, consisting of several different worms. Garfinkel mentions a case which has been extensively quoted, of a peasant who voided 238 feet of tapeworms, 12 heads being found. Laveran reports a case in which 23 teniae were expelled in the same day. Greenhow mentions the occurrence of two teniae mediocanellata.

The size of a tapeworm in a small child is sometimes quite surprising. Even the new-born have exhibited signs of teniae, and Haussmann has discussed this subject. Armor speaks of a fully-matured tapeworm being expelled from a child five days old. Kennedy reports cases in which tapeworms have been expelled from infants five, and five and one-half months old. Heisberg gives an account of a tapeworm eight feet in length which came from a child of two. Twiggs describes a case in which a tapeworm 36 feet long was expelled from a child of four; and Fabre mentions the expulsion of eight teniae from a child. Occasionally the tapeworm is expelled from the mouth. Such cases are mentioned by Hitch and Martel. White speaks of a tapeworm which was discharged from the stomach after the use of an emetic. Lile mentions the removal of a tapeworm which had been in the bowel twenty-four years.

The peculiar effects of a tapeworm are exaggerated appetite and thirst, nausea, headaches, vertigo, ocular symptoms, cardiac palpitation, and Mursinna has even observed a case of trismus, or lockjaw, due to taenia solium. Fereol speaks of a case of vertigo, accompanied with epileptic convulsions, which was caused by teniae. On the administration of kousso three heads were expelled simultaneously. There is a record of an instance of cardiac pulsation rising to 240 per minute, which ceased upon the expulsion of a large tapeworm. It is quite possible for the presence of a tapeworm to indirectly produce death. Garroway describes a case in which death was apparently imminent from the presence of a tapeworm. Kisel has recorded a fatal case of anemia, in a child of six, dependent on teniae.

The number of ascarides or round-worms in one subject is sometimes enormous. Victor speaks of 129 round-worms being discharged from a child in the short space of five days. Pole mentions the expulsion of 441 lumbricoid worms in thirty-four days, and Fauconneau-Dufresne has reported a most remarkable case in which 5000 ascarides were discharged in less than three years, mostly by vomiting. The patient made an ultimate recovery.

There are many instances in which the lumbricoid worms have pierced the intestinal tract and made their way to other viscera, sometimes leading to an anomalous exit. There are several cases on record in which the lumbricoid worms have been found in the bladder. Pare speaks of a case of this kind during a long illness; and there is mention of a man who voided a worm half a yard long from his bladder after suppression of urine. The Ephemerides contains a curious case in which a stone was formed in the bladder, having for its nucleus a worm. Fontanelle presented to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Paris several yards of tapeworm passed from the urethra of a man of fifty-three. The following is a quotation from the British Medical Journal: "I have at present a patient passing in his urine a worm-like body, not unlike a tapeworm as far as the segments and general appearance are concerned, the length of each segment being about 1/4 inch, the breadth rather less; sometimes 1 1/2 segments are joined together. The worm is serrated on the one side, each segment having 1 1/2 cusps. The urine pale, faintly acid at first, within the last week became almost neutral. There was considerable vesical irritation for the first week, with abundant mucus in the urine, specific gravity was 1010; there were no albumin nor tube-casts nor uric acid in the urinary sediments. Later there were pus-cells and abundant pus. Tenderness existed behind the prostate and along the course of left ureter. Temperature of patient oscillated from 97.5 degrees to 103.2 degrees F. There was no history at any time of recto-vesical fistula. Can anyone suggest the name, etc., of this helminth?"

Other cases of worms in the bladder are mentioned in Chapter XIII

Mitra speaks of the passage of round-worms through the umbilicus of an adult; and there is a case mentioned in which round-worms about seven inches long were voided from the navel of a young child. Borgeois speaks of a lumbricoid worm found in the biliary passages, and another in the air passages.

Turnbull has recorded two cases of perforation of the tympanic membrane from lumbricoides. Dagan speaks of the issue of a lumbricoid from the external auditory meatus. Laughton reports an instance of lumbricoid in the nose. Rake speaks of asphyxia from a round-worm. 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. 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 the ordinary boil. Matas has described a case in which the estrus larvae were found in the gluteal region. Finlayson of Glasgow has recently reported an interesting case in a physician who, after protracted constipation and pain in the back and sides, passed large numbers of the larvae of the flower-fly, anthomyia canicularis, and there are other instances of myiosis interna from swallowing the larvae of the common house-fly.

There are forms of nasal disorder caused by larvae, which some native surgeons in India regard as a chronic and malignant ulceration of the mucous membranes of the nose and adjacent sinuses in the debilitated and the scrofulous. Worms lodging in the cribriform plate of the ethmoid feed on the soft tissues of that region. Eventually their ravages destroy the olfactory nerves, with subsequent loss of the sense of smell, and they finally eat away the bridge of the nose. The head of the victim droops, and he complains of crawling of worms in the interior of the nose. The eyelids swell so that the patient cannot see, and a deformity arises which exceeds that produced by syphilis. Lyons says that it is one of the most loathsome diseases that comes under the observation of medical men. He describes the disease as "essentially a scrofulous inflammation of the Schneiderian membrane, ... which finally attacks the bones." Flies deposit their ova in the nasal discharges, and from their infection maggots eventually arise. In Sanskrit peenash signifies disease of the nose, and is the Indian term for the disease caused by the deposition of larvae in the nose. It is supposed to be more common in South America than in India.