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

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
was 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 watchglass to another by means of a
pipette he accidentally split drop on to the back
of his hand. He did not wait to wipe It off, but
after a time he noticed that the place where the
drop had fallen was intensely irritable and had be-
come Redeemed and nhamed. He then made a
further experiment; placing drop of the fluid
swarming with larvae the back of his hand he
allowed 1t partially to dry up. The burning and
the reddening of the skin began over again. and
little later when he removed what was left of the
fluid very few OF the larvae we're to be found The
great majority of them had disappeared These
little trifes gave Doctor Looss "furiously to
think" the French say. and he then repaired
to the hospital, where he found boy whose leg
was about to be removed. He dropped little of
the fluid full of ancylostoma larvae on the leg and
after the leg was cut off the area in question was
removed and cut into sections. When these sec
tons were examined through the microscope the
little ancylostoma larvae were seen forcing their
way down into the body through the skin espe.
cally travelling by the hair follicles and to a
lesser extent, through the sweat glands into the
deeper layers of the skin. II was of course i'm
possible to pursue this work with the human
his work with another species. The larvae of A
cadmium 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 no difficulty in tray
ersing the soft pulmonary tissue and making their
way in the cavity Of the respiratory organs
Thence they travel along the bronchial tubes and
to the windplpe and into the larynx and I'D al
most into the mouth, and here they turn back into
the oesophagus and so down into the stomach and
intestine The whole of this remarkable Journey
takes from seven to ten day. They then shed the
skin of their second moult. and later when they
reach the almentary canal they undergo a third
and fourth ecdysis OF moult. In eight days they
become capable of reproduction and in a yery few
rore days tie eggs then passing away from
the body of the host. The whole cycle OF their
lifehistory has taken, under favorable circum
stances, from month to six weeks; under unfa.
vorable circumstances it be almost indefinite
ly prolonged. The truth Of this very remarkable
and. until Doctor Looss Investigations. quite un-
heard OF lffe-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 1913 Piso in his
Historic Medlco Braziliae" gives an account
or a disease which he calls "Oppiacao" and