The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-10-23
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e. M=s:O of malaria. The trou N
BILE is brought about by NMAs
the presence in large numbers of Il II tlk#M
certain round worm ancylostoma duo kW
denae, in the human alimentary canal N#W
According to Castellani and Chalmers, WN
the disease is believed to have been NS
known to the ancient Egyptians un- I'M
der the term "heltp," which is men, W
toned in the Ebers papyTus, written III W
some one thousand five hundred an
fifty years B. C. In the papyrus the +
disease was called AAA and certain
remedies were suggested. Another an
clent reference occurs in the Sanscrit -
Harita Samhia, where it is recorded DoH, 1L1o1 x
that the trouble was due to swallowing 6II1OEHH
clay But whatever the ancents knew
about the ancylOstoma soon disappeared from the
stock of common knowledge and it only in
1888 that Dubin 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 1t was discovered to be the cause Of tropical
anaemia in Brazil. But 1t was not till the boring
of the ST. Gothard tunnel in the early eighties that
the disease attracted general attention among the
medical men of Europe. The Italian excavators
suffered much from this parasite that increas
ing interest taken in it, and now, for the first
time in modern medical history, it recognized
as causing dangerous and not irfrequently IA
tai disease.
Our knowledge of the geographical distribution
of the worm has within the last rs years increased
amazingly, and it 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 (f one may apply this word to
worm) all the globe between the parallels
81 degrees 81 minutes north and 30 degrees south.
wherever the Character and the moist condition of
the soil favors its presence. In Egypt 1t is found
in nearly all the natives In parts of India rs per
sxf,a koI N hA
mon in Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Java,
China Japan, the Philippines, the farmer parts of
South America and the West Indies, and in the
warmer parts of Europe and North America. In
1902 iancylostoma was discovered in the tin mines
of Cornwall, England probably introduced by the
return of miners from the Transvaal or other sub
tropical districts, and it has caused infinite harm
In the coal mines of central Europe, especially In
Westpha9ia. Once established In Its larva state
in the heat and the moisture of mine 1t 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 many Of the latter as Of the
former, and whereas the male measures from six
to eleven millimeters in length, the female meas
ures from seven to fifteen millimeters. Like all
animals that live in the dark, these little creatures
without pigment and are grayish white, but
sometimes they are stained red with the blood
they absorb from their host. Ancyostoma cannot
shut its mouth; it is perpetually open. Inside it
is provided with certain strongly recurved hooks.
Into this mouth and, indeed, quite a long way In
to the gullet 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 a bloOd-vessel Is
ruptured, and then pnkish tinge is given to the
parasitic worm; but according to Looss, the blood
corpuscles are not digested. 1t Is believed that
from time to time the worm shifts its position,
and that the abandoned bite continues to bleed,
and certainly there are some large glands opening
into the mouth Of the worm like those that exist
in the pharynx of the leech which may very well
secrete some anti-coaguatng secretion
female ancylostoma produces never-endng
stream of eggs, oval, transparent, delicatelookng
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 rapid that in one or two days
young larva is hatched out very hungry and very
vigorous, devouring whatever organic matter it
can find, so that within week it trebles its size,
but then 1t is very minute. BY the end of its
frst seven days Of free existence the embryo has
twice cast fits skin, and after its second moult 1t
undergoes "rest-cure," passing a stage compar-
able with the chrysalis in insects In this condI.
ton 1t win live for weeks and months. moving if
ct ALL but languidly in mud or damp earth.
The question now arises: How do these larvae
find their way into the alimentary canal of man?
Till few years ago 1t was always thought that
the transference was direct, either by means Of
verted instincts which the worm induces, for their