vermiculation

1. (obsolete, rare) The process of being turned into a worm.Examples: "But yet the queſtion would be, whether Flyes are not immediately generated of putrefaction, and not thoſe of worms. For experience witneſſeth that there are a certain kinde of Flies which are begotten in the back of the Elm, Turpentine-tree, Wormwood, and ſo perchance in other herbs and plants, without any preceding vermiculation, or being turned into little worms firſt."countableobsoleterareuncountable

2. (physiology, dated) Peristalsis (“wave-like contraction of the digestive tract, resembling the movement of a worm”).Examples: "When a patient dies on the fourth, fifth or sixth day, the cause is traumatic peritonitis. Lack of food, sleep and rest, is exhausting, but the poisoning of ferments—exudates and effusions in the peritoneal cavity—determines the fatal issue. Knuckles of intestines become agglutinated and held rigid. The normal and necessary vermiculation is cut off. At an autopsy the folds of the intestines seem glued together, as do the cerebral convolutions in brain fever. From such agglutination there is no relief—no method of cure. The injection of warm water and free manipulation of the bowels with the hand, is the only method of diluting the gluey exudates, and exciting normal vermiculation."; "Deficiency of vital energy, characterized as "gastrointestinal weakness," is a functional decrease of digestive absorption; i.e., insufficient secretion of peptic fluid, loss of appetite due to decrease of gastrointestinal vermiculation, […]"countabledateduncountable