The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-10-23
EGG or
ANcW0S7N/hH
RNOOWME

presence stimulates human beings to eat clay and
earth. But there is another route, and one of the
romances of science must now be explained. To
wards the end of the last century, when cholera
prevalent in Alexandria, Doctor Looss, the
distinguished parasitologist, was working in the
local laboratory at the larva Of ancylostoma. In
transferring some of the water containing larvae
from one watch-glass to another by means Of
ppette he accidentally split drop on to the back
Of his hand. He did not wait to wipe 1t off, but
after time he noticed that the place where the
drop had fallen was intensely irritable and had be-
come Redeemed and infamed He then made
further experiment; placing drop of the fluid
swarming with larvae on the back of his hand he
allowed it partially to dry up. The burning and
the reddening of the skin began again, and
little later when he removed what was left of the
fluid very few Of the larvae were to be found. The
great majority of them had disappeared. These
little trihes gave Doctor Looss "furiously to
think" as the French say, and he then repaired
to the hospital, where he found boy whose leg
about to be removed. He dropped little of
the fluid full of ancylostoma larvae on the leg, and
after the leg cut off the area in question was
removed and cut into sections. When these Sec
tions were examined through the microscope the
little ancylostoma larvae were seen forcing their
way down into the body through the skin, espe.
cially travelling by the hair folicles, and to a
lesser extent, through the sweat glands into the
deeper layers of the skin. 1t was, of course, i'm
possible to pursue this work with the human
ancylostoma, and Doctor Looss had to carry on
his work with another Species The larvae of A
caninum were traced into the blood vessels and
lymphatics Of the dog Swept along in the blood
stream, they easily reach the lungs. Once arrived
in the lungs the larvae have difficulty in trav-
ersing the soft pulmonary tissue and making their
way in the cavity Of the respiratory organs.
Thence they travel along the bronchial tubes, and
so to the windpipe and into the larynx and up al
most into the mouth and here they turn back into
the oesophagus and down into the stomach and
intestine. The whole of this remarkable journey
skin of their second moult, and later when they
reach the alimentary canal they undergo third
and fourth ecdysis moult. In eight days they
become capable OF reproduction and in very few
more days the eggs are then passing away from
the body of the host. The whole cycle of their
life-history has taken, under favorable circum-
stances, from month to six weeks; under unfa-
yorable circumstances 1t can be almost indefinite
ly prolonged. The truth Of this very remarkable
and. until Doctor Looss investigations quite un.
heard Of life-history is now accepted Doctor Sam
bon, however, thinks that in many cases the an
cylostoma larvae reach the alimentary canal with
the blood stream and directly penetrate Its walls
without passing through the lungs
Since the middle of the seventeenth century a
fatal disease has been known to exist in the
warmer parts Of America. In 164s Piso, in his
Historic Medico Braziliae," gives an account
of a disease which he calls "oppilacao" and