It is affirmed that flat worms develop in the unborn infant, and the reason given is that the feces are expelled so soon after birth that there would not be sufficient time during extrauterine life for the formation of creatures of such a size.

The same remark applies to round worms.

The proof of these statements is to be found in the fact that many infants expel both these varieties of parasites with the first stool.

It is difficult to know what to make of these opinions; for, with the exception of certain cases in some of the seventeenth and eighteenth century writers, there are no records in medicine of the occurrence of vermes in the infant at birth.

It is possible that other things, such as dried pieces of mucus, may have been erroneously regarded as worms..