Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1877 — Tape-Worm. [ARTICLE]

Tape-Worm.

Editor of the Jnamal of Commerce: Is there any known remedy for tapeworms It is not hereditary in this case. I have tried several doctors, hot can get no relief. Yours, etc., L. B. liaptr—Tha t»nia , or flat tapeworm, consisting of many joints and usually of Considerable length, is the most difficult to deal with of the whole family of MTOiet, and has sometimes proved fatal to life. Various vermifuges have been invented, and nbt a few specifics highly rec-

ommended aa a sovereign remedy for this affliction. The male fern, or Filim mat, has sometimes proved effectual. A Russian physician many years ago discovered that the seeds of the cctadilla (better k nown, perhaps, aa Veratrum tabadilla), which is the Indian caustic barley, a Mexican plant resembling in form and structure a barley ear, was an effectual cure. He gave to the patient half a drachm pdwdered and mixed with honey In the morning, fasting, followed the next morning by a drastic purgative. Curiously enough, while we were in the very actof hunting up this old recipe in our note-book, a friend called to tell ua of a most singular case which occurred in the family of a neighbor only two days previous. A child bad been sorely afflicted with this disease, having ground its teeth to the gums in its convulsions, and been vainly treated by several physicians, when an acquaintance recommended pumpkin-seeds, which contain a medicinal principle similar to the remedy above-mentioned. The mother bought ten cents’ worth of the seeds, and gave her child a number to eat, tbe skins being rejected, beginning about noon, when the child’s stomach was empty. An hour or two later she added two cups of water to the remainder of the seeds, and steeped them so as to make a strong decoction. This she gave in spoonfuls from hour to hour during the rest of the day, keeping the child fasting, giving it neither dinner nor supper. The next morning she administered a dose of castor oil, ana soon relieved the child of a tapeworm five yards in length. Similar instances had occurred recently in our friend’s experience, all the parties being well known and highly respectable. We cannot do better than suggest to our correKndent a repetition of this experiment. ) previous and subsequent fasting is* indispensable to success.—JlT. Y. Journal of Commerce.