Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 289

256

Report of the Ophthalmic Ilospital.

MAY,

sequently I was obliged to Mr. Morss, an American merchant, for ur- gently recommending her coming to Canton to be treated without de- lay. Mr. Morss is an intimate friend of my brother (Young Tingqua), who ordered me to tell my brothers to take our mother and bring her to Canton, when I respectfully requested Dr. Parker to see her, and was obliged to him for washing the parts and removing the sloughs from the sore with his own hand, and applying medicines several times daily for more than ten days in succession, after which she re- turned to the country, where she confined herself to his medical plas- ters, and in one month after a worm came out of the mouth of the ulcer, ten inches and more in length! It was of a yellow color, des- titute of limbs or eyes. The two extremities were black, and upon its belly were black lines. Ou cutting open the belly with a sherd of porcelain, more than a hundred little worms came out. After pulling out this worm, the ulcer daily improved; after one month the orifice closed up, in two months it was perfectly well, and the surface afterwards became smooth as usual. For all this we are indebted to the skillful hand of Dr. Parker and his efficacious plasters, and still more to Mr. Morss's urgent recommendations of the Doctor. I and my mother are verily grateful for the favor of creating her anew (i. e. re- storing her to health) which to our last breath we can not forget.

·Taking a drawing of the dimensions of the worm, I present it for Dr. Parker's inspection."

"Bedewed with favors, Chang Kiun-sung and others present their compliments."

"

It can not be doubted that an intestinal worm was taken from the side of this patient, but that this was the cause of the malady, is not so clear, and the real origin of it remains a question difficult to solve. The nature of the affection, and the perfect recovery, are both remarkable. Professor Dunglison however, remarks (Practice of Medicine, Vol. I. p. 195), "Some have asserted, that the intestinal canal is occasionally "perforated by worms; but if it has ever happened, it is an extremely rare occurrence (J. P. Frank, J. Cloquet, Stokes). More commonly, an ulcerative process has been established in the intestine, through "which the worms have escaped." So far as the maxim omne vivum ex ovo is concerned, the presence of "more than one hundred little worms" found within the large one "pulled out" of this woman's side is one

one fact, at least, against its accuracy, and clearly in favor of the conclusion to which distinguished physiologists and naturalists have arrived, viz. the regular generation of entozoa.