A discussion on ankylostomiasis / G.M. Giles [and others].

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A discussion on ankylostomiasis / G.M. Giles [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/16 (page 541)
    |1ept. • 1900 .] Tn* British CJT •neuillula stercoralis can only mature in foul wAter, and »«mdly dies in decomposing faeces. The rhabdites of apkylo- Soma on the other hand? mature rapidly and best in the decomposing faecal matter which is their natural habitat. IJp to the time of my leaving Assam I had never once succeeded S bringing them to maturity in water; but amce then when reoeating my experiments at Saharanpore in the N encceeded on one occasion in rearing them in water containing ^considerable amount of faecal matter. From thesecon- eiderations it is evident that these suggested sources offal clacy are entirely excluded by the method of ohservatio \ adopted, and I may add that the mere fact of their being sug- r tested shows that my critics had not been at the pf“ .u„r o, ‘ my report with any approach to attention. As aimatter^0 ^<act all these three nematode forms under discussion do V closely resemble each other, though doubtlessifonecould ‘ nlacethem side by side it would be easy to find specific dm 1 r ^_ fhci maips nf the ankylostomua rhao* i-nces, for example, the males of the ankylostomua dites 'and of rhabdites terricola have a caudal^ membrane supported by seven or eight ribs, but Sonsino s figures mature anguillula do not show any such structur . ■ r however may be merely a matter of careless drawing, or^as I should judge from the figure, the selecl‘i^inthe last maiming iu t..c —- --- *--- mature specimen, as this structure only appears in the last 0f health rather than disease, ecdyses. As a matter of fact, however, any other hje hist y A-jde|t0 this, 1 am convinced that the wish to escape t ‘ for ankylostoma is becoming increasingly imP™^abrle; . in disagreeable and almost insoluble problem of the lntroducti Ralliet has n similar dimorphism in V* ___ »nnnoonrannv 1 which obvious the worm was present not only in those who exhibited per¬ ceptible symptoms, but also in a large proportion of the really °rMyPoh?ect^n instituting these examinations of immigrants at Dhulia was to ascertain if the disease existed in the coolieB brought from other parts of India, because if this were the case it would explain the fact that the appearance of kala-azar and beri-beri in Assam is coincident with introduction on large scale of the system of imported labour. The fact that the disease existed amongst these immigrants sufficed for my purposes. I therefore examined only such cases as pre¬ sented some symptoms of ankylostomiasis, though neces¬ sarily none were at all advanced cases, as the labour recruiters knesV too well that no obviously sickly coolie would pass Major Dobson’s critical eye. . Wher^er this disease is common, it necessarily follows that a large proportion of the healthy population will harbour the' worm also. The presently healthy people may be either severely-infected early cases or slightly-infected cases of any duration • but overlooking the fact that the men he saw had alreadTheen selected because they were healthy, and that on this account no really advanced cases could possibly come Store him, Major Dobson fell into the fallacy of pro¬ claiming to the world that the presence of ankylostoma Ralliet has demonstrated a similar strongylus strigosus and in s. retortiC-formis, while 7 have done so in two other sclerostomes, and am^cauf u free dined to suspect that a large proportion of so-called free nematodes will ultimately he demonstrated to be not hi Dg more than dimorphic representatives of known ^drinking On no occasion have I found these rhabdites in drinking or indeed in any natural collection of, water. On the othe the disagreeable and almost insoluble problem of the introduction into Assam of measures of “conservancy which obviously alone can be of anv avail in preventing the dieease has much to say in the genesis of the thought that these worms are alter al AhseTOndSpoint on which our knowledge of the subject is incomplete is the way in which the parasite brings about the characteristic amemia' It may, I think, be conceded that the mere loss of blood is insufficient in the majority of cases only when enormous numbers are present can the dram be adpersaonally 1km convinced that dyspepsia due(to the damage brofight to the mucous membrane (a point which I verified port Mortem) has much to say in the matter, but a further it matters not wnetner me emuijfu o — ,V hypothesis is that the parasite produces a poisonous excretion, of a narasite or free form, provided only it be swallowed whe JP j aware, no one has as yet advanced proof of this; vounc Thl progenyof both, in other words, develop into So *ar has be“n e8tablished for certain other entozoa. Lastly, young, the progeny -^ ^ fVio environment in whieli | but ‘tc^PeenesL tlemen who m have met with the disease In note malarious localities would be specially valuable and interesting. __ KStoorrffiS.acc”dipg to the environment in whieh idhpl0?o°nBtedee“pe08VuMto the direct ray. o! the eon kills the f free stage worms, probabiy became they brought to a temperature exceeding 4 • after | desiccation of even a Punjab summer will not do so as after a lapse of over twelve months some f.^he cultivations I n«Q brought from Assam with me to the Punjab w^eeasly revived bv moistening; and on being fed with normal fsecai matter were through several generations easily brought t matnrit^ Bnryini the embryos also destroys them and thev are easily killed by most of the ordinary disinfectants, wch as pSloride of memory or carbolic acid an moderately - SS 5SS St. Ss amount of Ae^mlreffiMined to regard this Pillllii ankylostoma. I also did microscope but mis¬ diagnose such cases by whicl^ h ™waa; unfamiliar, he trusting an instrument with^whicbne was n &u comergi adopted the somewhat heroic course o K ininK their namely, that ] II.—Captain C. F. Fearnsidf., I.M.S., Superintendent of the Central Prison, IUjahmundri. A systematic search for the ova of this parasite amongst the convicts and new arrivals in the Central Prison, Rajahmundn, was commenced in February last. Those examined came from the Northern Circars (Ganjam, Godaven, \ izagapatam, Krishna) also Kurnool and the hilly tracts of the East Coast. The microscopic examination of the stools of new admissions was carried out within a few days after their arrival, and on an average three slides were carefully gone over. At the end of a year it is intended to publish the full results, and the Information furnished is still incomplete. From February zznd to June 13th, 1900, 678 new arrivals were exa¬ mined In addition to these, more than 300 convicts, who have been confined over six months in the prison, have also been scrutinised. Having a limited time at my disposal, It was onl? possible, as I mentioned before, to examine three Tildes So 1 feel certain that had more time been devoted to Wher than that of the total 678 persons. The percentage of roundworms is the same-36-and thus, for the purpose of comparison, the 100 cases may be taken as a standard. Of the 32 persons affected with ankylostoma, 50(or nearly 70 per cent.) ie?e n good health, 12 (or .6,6 per cent) were m jPdifierent health and 10 (or 13.9 per cent.) were in bad health. Thus 72 per ceTt of persons in the Northern C.rcars harbour this parasite and remain in good health. Nearly 35 per cent, har¬ bour in the bowel simultaneously both ankylostoma duodenale and ascaris lumbricoides. - •