The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-10-11

ASCAtlASlS ANT WHAT SHE USED IO BE | Many years ago the neighborhood Sairey- gamps had fine time going about diagnosing worms in children and plying the luckless iyoungsters with favorite worm medicines.
 hos wouS accurate to say these fortunate ones have never had worms.
 Most children at one time or another har- l Dor worms either round worms (lumbricoid) or pinworms (oxyuris) or both and the pres- ence of these parasites as likely as not, causes no more definite trouble or symptoms than some external itching.
 z Careful study of large series of children with worms, compared with a similar group of children who had no worms. has proved that there are no characteristic effects or symptoms produced by these common intestinal parasites. Vague complaint of "bellyache," restless sleep, more frequent in children whe have worms than in children who have none. But grinding of the teeth, foul tongue and heavy breath, | white lines arond the mouth, feyerishness and spasmodic twitchings occur frequently in | children who have no worms as in children who have worms.
 worms can be diagnosed Is by nding the eggs l (mcroscopc) of the worms, or by the finding | of the worms themselves.
 | There are many worm medicines or treat ments which can be given child known to have worms, but none that can recommend us effective and safe except as given under the personal direction of the physician.
 Round worms (Ascaris Lumbricoides) arc five to ten inches long, paler than earthworms, live In the small intestine lay millions of eggs, | sometimes occur in masses which may tenn porarily obstruct the intestine. They occasion ally migrate into the stomach and are vomited, or into the bile ducts, causing obstructive jaun- dice, even into the Eustachian tube | A medical textbook which was once classic (Hot's Disease of Infancy and Childhood) mentions recently as tho 1922 edition, the following symptoms of round worms
 '"rhe most frequent abdominal symptoms
 are colic tympanities (distenson). and other
 symptoms of indigestion. loss of appetite
 disturbed sleep, and grinding of the teeth at night These symptoms are much more fre- | quently duo to other causes than to worms. '. The symptoms may be of the most pug
 zng character. prolonged low fever,
 chills, convulsiohs, tetany, transient paral-
 yses, such strabisums (cross eye or squint)
 and even hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of | the body) and asphasa (loss of speech). All
 these have been observed in connection with intestinal worms, and from the fact that the
 symptoms disappeared completely after the
 worms were expelled there seems little doubt that they were the cause of the symptoms.
 As in tho case of the abdominal symptoms,
 however, intestinal worms are only one of the | possible causes of such nervous disturbances, and certainly not a frequent one." | So even a conservative authority decade ago was beginning to question the diagnosis of f''worms" from symptoms .~lone count gives fairly good clue to the nature of the illness, that, if the illness is due to parasitic infestation there will be more than the normal proportion of white corpuscles that take red stain--they are called eosinophile cells.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 No Universal Doctor Book
 Kindly recommend good home medical book, one which goes exhaustvely into all mat. ters pertaining to the human system. (J. B. | Answer-Only quack doctor books purport to do that If you will indicate what subject you wish to study may be able to recommend books to you. but do not advise lay reader to study works on symptoms diagnosis ol il therapeutics.
 l Color Blindness III Is there any possible cure for color blind ness? I am 19 years old and keen to learI 2 to fly but when took the physical examina ton I was rejected on account of color blind ness CD. R, T.)
 l Answer-If 1t Is congenital (that is, if it wa present at birth) it is not curable If it is ac duired it may be cured.
 How does this square with your theories (R. A. B.
 Answer-clippng incosed quotes physician as dsagreeing with two experts who had testi fled that a could not have died from tn effects of one-fourth grain of cyanide absorbe, through the skin. My theories have nothing t do with it. No one has ever proved that eva hide or anything else is absorbed through tn unbroken skin-and this goes for Prof Muehl enberg or kalenberg. whichever 1t is whose oil students are forever citing as an authority who has proved this.
 .l tcopyrisht 1888. John r. DiIle co.s