The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey translated out of Latine and compared with the French. by Th: Johnson

CHAP. V. What cure to bee used for the Wormes.

IN this disease there is but one indication, that is, the exclusion or * 1.1 casting out of the wormes, either alive or dead, forth of the bo∣dy, as being such that in their whole kinde are against nature; all things must bee shunned which are apt to heap up putrefaction in the body by their corruption, such as are crude fruits, cheese, milke-meats, fishes, and lastly such things as are of a difficult and hard digestion, but prone to corruption. Pappe is fit for children, for that they require moist things, but these ought to answer in a certaine similitude to the consistence and thicknesse of milke, that so they may the more easily be con∣cocted & assimulated, & such only is that pap which is made with wheat flower, not crude, but baked in an oven, that the pappe made therewith may not be too viscide nor thicke, if it should onely bee boyled in a panne as much as the milke would re∣quire; or else the milke would bee too terrestriall, or too waterish, all the fatty por∣tion thereof being resolved, the cheesy and whayish portion remaining, if it should boile so much as were necessary for the full boiling of the crude meate; they which use meale otherwise in pappe yeild matter for the generating of grosse and viscide humours in the stomacke, whence happens obstruction in the first veines and sub∣stance of the liver, by obstruction wormes breede in the guts, and the stone in the kidneyes and bladder. The patient must be fed often, and with meates of good juice, lest the worms through want of nourishment, should gnaw the substance of the guts. Now when as such things breed of a putride matter, the patient shall be purged, and the putrefaction represt by medicines mentioned in our treatise of the plague. For the quick killing and casting of them forth, syrupe of Succory, or of lemmons with * 1.2 rubarbe, a little Treacle, or Mithridate, is a singular medicine, if there be no feaver; you may also for the same purpose use this following medicine. ℞. cornu cervi, pul. rasur. eboris, an. ʒ i ss. sem. tanacet. & contra verm. an. ʒ i. fiat decoctio pro parva dofi, in colatur a infunde rhei optimi, ʒ i. cinam. ℈ i. dissolve syrupi de absinthio ℥ ss. make a po∣tion, give it in the morning three houres before any broath. Oyle of Olives drunke, kills wormes, as also water of knot-grasse drunke with milke, and in like manner all bitter things. Yet I could first wish them to give a glyster made of milke, hony and sugar, without oyles and bitter things, lest shunning thereof, they leave the lower guts, and come upwards, for this is naturall to wormes, to shunne bitter things, and follow sweet things. Whence you may learne, that to the bitter things which you give by the mouth, you must alwaies mixe sweet things, that allured by the sweet∣nesse, they may devour them more greedily, that so they may kill them. Therefore I

would with milke and Sugar, mixe the seeds of centaury, rue, wormewood, aloes, and the like: harts-horne is very effectuall against wormes, wherefore you may in∣fuse * 1.3 the shavings thereof in the water or drinke that the patient drinkes, as also to boile some thereof in his brothes. So also treacle drunke or taken in broth, killeth the wormes; purslaine boiled in brothes, and destilled and drunke, is also good a∣gainst the worms, as also succory and mints, also a decoction of the lesser house-leek and sebestens given with sugar before meate; it is no lesse effectuall to put worme∣seeds in their pap, and in roasted apples, and so to give them it. Also you may make suppositories after this manner, and put them up into the fundament. ℞. coralli sub∣albi, rasurae eboris, cornu cerviusti, ireos an. ℈ ii. mellis albi ℥ ii ss. aquae centi••odiae q. s. * 1.4 adomnia concorporanda, fiant Glandes: let one be put up every day, of the weight of ʒ ii. for children; these suppositories are chiefly to bee used for Ascarides, as those which adhere to the right gut. To such children as can take nothing by the mouth, you shall apply cataplasmes to their navells made of the pouder of cummin seeds, the floure of lupines, worme-wood, southerne wood, tansie, the leaves of Artichokes, rue, the pouder of coloquintida, citron seeds, aloes, arsemart, horse mint, peach leaves, Costus amarus, Zedoaria, sope and oxegall. Such cataplasmes are oft times spred over all the belly, mixing therewith astringent things for the strengthening of the part, as oile of myrtles, Quinces and mastich; you may also apply a great onion hollowed in the midst, and filled with Aloes and Treacle, and so roasted in the embers, then beaten with bitter almonds, and an oxe gall. Also you may make emplasters of bit∣ter things, as this which followes. ℞. fellis bubuli, & sucei absinthii, an.. ℥ ii. colocyn. ℥ i. terantur & misceantur simul, incorporentur cum farina lupinorum: make hereof an * 1.5 emplaster to be laid upon the Navell.

Liniments and ointments may bee also made for the same purpose to anoint the belly, you may also make plasters for the navell of Pillulae Ruff. anointing in the meane time the fundament with hony and sugar, that they may bee chafed from a∣bove with bitter things, and allured downewards with sweete things. Or else take wormes that have beene cast forth, dry them in an iron pan over the fire, then pou∣der them, and give them with wine or some other liquor to bee drunke, for so they are thought quickly to kill the rest of the wormes. Hereto also conduceth the juice of citrons, drunke with the oile of bitter almonds, or sallade oile. Also some make bathes against this affect of wormewood, galls, peach leaves boiled in water, and then bathe the childe therein.

But in curing the wormes, you must observe that this disease is oft times entan∣gled with another more grievous disease, as an acute and burning feaver, a fluxe or * 1.6 scouring, and the like, in which (as for example sake) a feaver being present and con∣joyned therewith, if you shall give wormseeds, old Treacle, myrrhe, aloes, you shall encrease the feaver and fluxe, for that bitter things are very contrary to the cure of these affects. But if, on the contrary, in a fluxe whereby the wormes are excluded, you shall give corrall, and the floure of Lentiles, you shall augment the feaver, ma∣king the matter more contumacious by dry and astringent things. Therefore the Physician shall be carefull in considering whether the feaver bee a symptome of the * 1.7 wormes, or on the contrary it bee essentiall, and not symptomaticke, that this being knowne, hee may principally insist in the use of such medicines as resist both affects, as purging and bitterish in a feaver and wormes, but bitter and somewhat astrictive things in the wormes and fluxe.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The generall indications of curing he wormes.
• * 1.2

  Wherefore, and wherewith such as have the wormes must be purged.
• * 1.3

  Harts-horne good against the wormes.
• * 1.4

  Suppositories against the Ascarides.
• * 1.5

  A plaster a∣gainst the wormes.
• * 1.6

  A caution.
• * 1.7

  A feaver some∣times a symp∣tome and some∣times a disease.