The suburban citizen., 1900-07-14
1AE TUNNEL DISEASE.
Curious A hliction OF Those who DeIve
In Mines and Tunnels.

! Curious A fliotion OF Those VINO DeIvo
In Mines and Tunnels.
There is a disease which attacks the
laborers in tunnels and mines. 1t is
as old as Egypt, but only within. this
century has it been traced to specific
parasite. 1t is a painful and danger
GUS disease, often resulting in death.
A monograph on the subject of this
malady, called ankylostomiasis, has
just appeared, and, coming as it does,
from Hugo Il. Goldman M. d., the
official physician in the coal mines of
Brennberg, near Oldenburg, Germany,
1t carries great weight, for 1t is based
upon years of experience and practical
treatment of this dread disease.
1t attacks not only men, but ami
mails, especially the horses or mules
used in the building of tunnels and the
operation of mines. 1t is q disease
caught by infection, like typhoid or
cholera. 1t may be contracted in the
air or by contact with the germs,
which are really the eggs Of the little
worm, or ankylostoma, as 1t is called.
This name means hooked mouth"
and refers to the six hooked teeth
around the mouth of the parasite by
which It clings to the interior of the.
human intestine. 1t is found not only
in the duodenum, but also in the
smaller intestines, where it grows and
hourishes
Male and female can be distin-
guished among these parasites, the
females being larger and more numer-
GUS than the males. The males grow
to the length of .3937 inch, and the
female is on an average half as long
again. They can be seen with the
naked eye. This animal has neither
breathing apparatus nor circulatory
system, and varies in color from gray
ish white to brown and even blood
red, according to the condition of the
person in whom it is found. The fe-
male lays a number Of eggs in the
human intestines, from which they
spread the disease infinitely under
proper conditions. The parasite and
the egg develop best in a temperature
between 90 and 50 degrees Farenheit.
The air and surrounding medium
should be moist. 1t is on account of
the moisture and heat to be found in
mines and tunnels that this parasite
develops So perfectly among the toll
0rs in these places. Darkness is also.
necessary, sunlight killing these ami
malculae almost instantly.
Ankylostomiasis originated in the
Ov.iapf hoan lonU acfo bIfcbon
in Egypt, but has been mistakenly
called Egyptian chlorosis, or aenemia,
and was treated as mere poverty of
the blood in red cOrpuscles. 1t passed
over from Egypt to Italy, where it
was not really understood until Dubini
found the parasite in 1888.
When the st. Gothard tunnel was
built in the '7Os, the disease spread
throughout central Europe, especially
in Switzerland. The further spreading
of the ankylostoma to the mines Of
Europe was quick to follow. When
the men were first attacked in the
St Gothard tunnel it was thought
that a new disease, the tunnel dis
ease" had been found, but it was moth
luS OJnet lutu lHe duhylOSJOlud, as
was proved by Perrencito, when he
found no less than 1900 of these para
sites in the duodenum of man who
had died of tunnel disease"
The mode On infection is very appar
ent. The men while at work often
carry their hands to their mouths, or
eat their food in the tunnels or mines,
and in this way the parasite or its
eggs enter through the mouth, pass
into the system and find a permanent
home in the intestines, to the walls of
which they cling with all six teeth
feeding on the blood of the unfortu
nate person attacked.