On the Treatment of Tape-worm by the Oil of Pumpkin-seeds.
By Henry S. Patterson, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica
in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College.
In the Medical Examiner for October, 1852,1 reported a case
of radical cure of Taenia by the use of an emulsion of pumpkin
seeds, after the 01. Terebinth, and even Kousso had signally
failed. Several other cases have been reported, both before
and since mine, all going to establish the efficacy of this new
remedy. Should it prove as generally successful in expelling
the worm as the cases indicate, it will become a valuable acces-
sion to our means of treatment in a troublesome and often obsti-
nate affection.
The seeds of the common pumpkin {Cucurbita pepo,) consist
of a leathery white envelope, enclosing an oily albumen of a
slightly greenish tinge. They are inodorous and have a sweetish,
mucilaginous taste. Rubbed up with warm water or milk, and
sweetened, they form a very pleasant emulsion ; and this is the
way in which they have generally been administered. They
abound in fixed oil, which is readily yielded on expression, and
appears to be the only constituent of any importance. Conceiv-
ing this oil to be the anthelmintic principle, I determined to use
it in the first case of Taenia I should encounter. A quantity was
obtained, by cold expression, by our accomplished pharmaceutist,
Mr. Frederick L. John, of Race street. From four lbs. of the seeds
he procured §xiv of oil, but he has no doubt that, if the opera-
tion were conducted on a larger scale and more carefully, the
yield would be from thirty to forty per cent. The oil is clear,
transparent, of a light brownish green color, with a slight oily
odor, and a perfectly bland taste, like that of the oil of sweet
almonds. It has now been kept some ten months, (in well-
stoppered bottles,) and is perfectly sweet and bland.
No case of taenia has occurred in my own practice, but in May
last I learned from Mr. Jno. C. Lyons, an intelligent member of
the medical class of Pennsylvania College, that a poor woman in
his neighborhood (Kensington) labored under the disease, and had
asked his advice. I requested him to use the pumpkin-seed oil,
which he did, and with the happiest result. Causing her to fast
rigidly for twenty-four hours, he gave her 5ss of the oil in the
morning, and in about two hours 3ss more. This produced a
slight disposition to looseness of the bowels. In two hours after
the last dose, 51 of castor-oil was given, and purged freely,
bringing away a considerable quantity of the worm. From that
period until the present, (September,) she has remained entirely
free from every symptom of verminous irritation, and there can
be no doubt that the worm was altogether destroyed.
Taenia is of so rare occurrence with us, that no individual
practitioner sees enough of it to enable him alone fairly to test
any medicine. I therefore beg leave to call the attention of my
medical brethren to a remedy readily obtained, cheap and plea-
sant, and which I believe will be found quite efficient.