Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-10-23

presence stimulates human beings to eat clay anu
earth. But there is another route and one OF the
rOmances of science must now be explained 10
wards the end of the last century, when cholera
was prevalent in Alexandria, Doctor Looss, the
distinguished parastoOgist, was working III the
local laboratory at the Iarva of ancylostoma. In
transferring some of the water containing larvae
from watchglas to another by means OF
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 intensely irritable and nae be-
come Redeemed and infamed. He then mae
further experiment; placing drop OF the ala
swarming with larvae the back of his hand he
allowed it partially to dry up. The burning and
the reddening Of the skin began over again, a. ! a
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 tTifes gave Doctor Looss "furiOusly to
think as the French say, and he then repaired
to the hospital where he found a boy whose leg
was about to be removed. He dropped lite Of
the fluid full of ancylOstoma larvae 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 heir
way down into the body through the skin, cspe-
cialIy travelling by the hair folliCles, and, to
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
ancyIostOma. and Doctor LOoss had to carry on
his work with another species. The larvae Of
caninum traced into the blood vessels and
Iymphatics OF the dog. Swept along in the Hood
stream, they easily reach the lungs. Once arrived
in the lungs the larvae have no difficulty in trav
ersing the soft pulmonary tissue and making their
way in the cavity of the respiratory C"5ans.
Thence they travel along the bronchial tube and
so TO the windpipe and into the larynx and al
most into the mouth, and here they turn baC into
the oesophagus and so down into the stomas 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 alimentary canal they undergo 4 third
and fourth ecdysis moult. IN eight days they
become capable of reproduction, and in a very few
more days the eggs then passing awe from
the body Of the host The whole cycle {: their
life-history has taken, under favorable .rcum-
stances from month to six weeks; unG unfa-
vOrable circumstances it can be almost il Finite
ly prolonged. The truth of this very reI.'" lahle
and, until Doctor Looss Investigations, este
heard OF life-histOry is now accepted Dos r Sam
bon. however, thinks that in many he an
cylostOma larvae reach the aImentary c., Il with
the blood stream and directly penetrate H., walls
without passing through the lungs
Since the middle of the seventeenth c. ury
fatal disease has been known to exist n the
warmer parts of America. In 1913 Pis9 IN his
Historic Medico Braziliae," gives an cccunt
of a adisease which he calls "Oppilacao" and