nearer to that last stated. It is, however, not improbable that these affections are more prevalent in this district, although not to the extent alleged; and that this increased prevalence may be owing to the greater amount of dyspeptic affections, of the more inveterate forms of which, amenorrhoea is often a consequence.
The same remark, I believe, will apply to the class of affections next to be noticed, marasmus, infantile remitting fever, intestinal irritation, and worms. As I have nothing particular to state on these affections, I shall conclude with a few remarks on worms and chronic eruptions.
Worms.—Dr. Paris, who resided at Penzance for a few years, considered worms as of very frequent occurrence in this district, and attributed the circumstance to an impoverished diet and the use of unsalted fish.[1] Whatever the cause may be, and I apprehend we may look no farther than the ordinary causes of dyspepsia, which we have found so prevalent, the fact seems fully established by the results of the Dispensary tables, which make the proportion of worm cases to the total diseases as 1 in 48, while in the London tables of Dr. Willau and Dr. Bateman it is only 1 in 141. I am unable to specify the kind of worms of which the list is composed, except for column second:—the 16 cases therein given were—lumbricus, 9; tænia, 5; ascaris, 2. This is an unusually large proportion of tænia, and a small one of ascarides.
Cutaneous eruptions.—I should have regarded the number of these complaints mentioned in the Dispensary
- ↑ Treatise on Diet, 4th Ed. p. 159.
