Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-10-24

!. !. !
e=su=s. of malaria. The trou-
BILE is brought about by sNzHs
the presence in large numbers Of {lEAaj
certain round worm, ancylostoma duo ESSW
denale in the human alimentary canal. xWW
According to Casteani and Chalmers. W&
the disease is believed to have been M
known to the ancient Egyptians un- EHA
der the term "heltp" which is men E%
toned in the Ebers papyrus written W
some one thousand five hundred an A--M
fifty years b. c. In the papyrus the TX
disease was called AAA, and certain N
remedies were suggested. Another an
cent reference occurs in the Sanscrit n.,,,..
Harita Samhita where 1t is recorded abSI5 81 3
that the trouble was due to swallowing DU0DFWH
clay. But whatever the ancients knew
about the ancylostoma soon disappeared from the
stock Of common knowledge, and it only in
1888 that Dubini rediscovered the worm which is
responsible for such widespread distress. Some
years later Griesinger associated the presence of
the worm with profound anaemia in Egypt Later
on it was discovered to be the cause of tropical
anaemia III Brazil. But 1t was not till the boring
Ut Gor1iaru tundei IA TINS eisnqi1s tiat
the disease attracted general attention among the
medical men of Europe. The Italian excavators
suffered so much from this parasite that increas-
ing interest taken in it, and now for the first
time in modern medical history, it was recognized
as causing dangerous and not infrequently ia
tai disease.
Our knowledge of the geographical distribution
of the has within the last % years increased
amazingly and 1t has at the present time been
found In SO many countries that one may almost
state that ancylostoma or an allied genus is gen
orally endemic Cif one may apply this word to a
worm) all over the globe between the parallels
81 degrees 81 minutes north and 80 degrees south,
wherever the character and the moist condition of
the soil favors its presence. In Egypt it is found
In nearly all the natives. In parts of India 75 per
cent. infected. and it seems to be equally
mon in Ceyon, the Straits Settlements, Java,
A.
South America and the West Indies, and in the
warmer parts of Europe and North America In
1902 ancylostoma discovered in the tin mines
of Cornwall. England, probably introduced by the
return of miners from the Transyaa or other sub
tropical districts and It has caused infinite harm
in the coal mines of central Europe especially in
Westphalia. Once established In its larval state
in the heat and the moisture of mine it Is very
difficult to eradicate.
AS is usual with parasitic worms the male is
comparatively insignificant in number and size
compared with the female. There seem to be
about three times as many of the latter as of the
former, and whereas the male measures from six
10 eleven mlmeters in length, the female meas
from seven to fifteen millimeters. Like all
animals that live in the dark, these little creatures
without pigment and graysh white, but
sometimes they stained red with the blood
they absorb from their host Aneylostoma cannot
shut Its mouth 1t is perpetually open Inside 1t
is provided with certain strongly recurved hooks
Into this mouth and, indeed, quite a long way in
10 the outlet is dragged portion of the soft mu-
cous membrane lining of the alimentary canal Of
the host, and it is the cells covering this that
the worm lives. Occasionally blood-vessel is
ruptured and then pinliish tinge is given to the
parasitic worm but according to l4ooss the blood
corpuscles are not digested II Is believed that
from time to time the worm shifts its position,
and that the abandoned bite continues to bleed,
and certainly there some large glands opening
into the mouth of the worm like those that exist
in the pharynx of the leech which may very we'll
secrete some anti-coaguatng secretion.
A female ancylostoma produces a never.ending
stream of eggs oval, transparent delicate-looking
structures which do not develop very far until
they have passed away from the body of their
host, Should, however, they reach warm moist
spot in mine or tunnel or on the ground, the de-
velopment is so rapid that In one or two days a
young larva is Matched out, very hungry and very
vigorous devouring whatever organic matter il
can find, 80 that within week 1t trebles its size
but then it is very minute. BY the end of its
first seven days of free existence the embryo has
twice cast Its skin, and after it's second mnnlt il
undergoes 'restcure," passing stage compar.
able with the chrysalis in insects. In this condi
tion it will live for weeks and months, moving II
at all, but languidly in mud damp earth
The question arises How do these larvae
find their way into the amentary canal of man
Till few years ago it was always thought that
drinking infected water or by means of the per
Terted instincts which the INDUCES, for theil