The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-05-14

his column.
troops are in tropical zones so sub
ject to these infections. Most ply
sicians in the United States are
unfamiliar with them. In only a
few medical colleges have courses
in tropical diseases been given.
The faculty TO which | am at
tached was notified by the Surgeon
General that the subject must be
taught at this session, and we
were all so innocent Of any infor-
nation on the subject that we had
to detail one Of our number to take
a special course at Tulane Uni
versity, New Orleans.
Tropical diseases are of faS-
einating interest. Most Of them
are due to animal parasites and
most Of them are spread from man
TO man by insects. The intricate
series of events that occur in this
process, which involves the life
cycle Of the insect and the para
site, is a miracle which testifies to
the devious pathways which ma
ture takes TO accomplish her end.
Take for instance filiariasis,
which causes the condition pop
ularly called elephantiasis. The
filiariae are small worms about
the size of a very small thread.
They enter the blood stream and
Emphatic spaces and are sucked
up by a species Of mosquito-Cu-
lex-when it bites the human host.
The embryo filiariae enter the
mosquitoes stomach and make
their way through its walls, de-
veloping into adult forms in the
muscles of the mosquitoes body
wall. AS soon as they have reached
adult development, they migrate
TO the mosquitoes salivary glands,
and when next he bites human,
the parasites enter the human
blood stream and live out a cycle.
The male fertilizes the female in
the human host and the embryos
are born there. Only when the
mosquito sucks up an embryo is
the cycle ready to so again.
In the human host the filiarias
exhibit a trait called periodicity.
During the daytime they return
to the deep internal blood vessels
and at night they migrate to the
superficial vessels of the skin.
Since the mosquito only bites at
night, this is another example Of
natures methods Of adjustment.
Fihariae are found in some Of
our southern states, in Mexico,
Central America and Northern
South America, down to the lower
border Of Brazil; in Northern
Africa, Arabia, India, Malaga,
Burma, Java and Northern Aus
tralia. If seen north Of latitude
IS, they are imported.
once saw a patient with fliari-
asis who had a remarkable story.
He was an English army officer
who had been stationed in India
and was visiting the United
States. He took 4 highball or two
one night before retiring and
woke up in the middle Of the night
to see an enormous reptile-a sort
of dragon-undulating across his
field of vision. One of his fliariae
had reached an artery in the
retina Of his eye and in that po-
sition got magnified. He thought
he was in for delirium tremens
sure enough.
Malaria is the worlds great
killer. There have been some fears
expressed that malaria will be
brought back from the tropics by
our troops and that this will estab-
lish a reservoir in northern lati-
tudes. But there is little founda-
ton for this: malaria cannot
thrive without the anopheles
mosquito and the anopheles per-
ishes in cold weather.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NJ. o. G.: Is orange rind bene-
fetal or detrimental in the diet7
Answer: Orange rind is not
harmful. 1t does not have as much
of the sugar and vitamin-contain-
ing qualities as the pulp Of the
orange, but has some of them.
Z. NJ. B.: What is govt, what
causes it and what will relieve it?
Answer: Govt is a disturbance
Of nutrition in which uric acid,
which is found in nearly all foods,
cannot be eliminated by the body.
1t is, therefore, deposited in the
joints. Relief can be obtained By
using a minimum of foods which
contain uric acid (those which con-
tain the most are liver, acid fruits,
kidneys and red meats), and pre-
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