Richfield Reaper | 1913-11-06 | Page 6 | Hook or Tunnel Worm Disease

ROK X W tae 0 HE so called ancy the corn com monest ot of all tropical diseases la is more debilitating bili bill tating and more ia fa tal and moro more widely spread than any other tropical disease nith mth the possible exception ot of malaria the trou brou ble is brought about by the presence in large numbers of i certain round norm duo denale in the human alimentary canal according to castellani Castella nl and chalmers the disease Is 13 belie believed led to haie bae been kno in n to the ancient ega un der tho the term bisp thich is men tinned in the ebors papyrus pi pyrus NN ritten some one thousand 11 ae ine hundred 1 in an fifty years B C in the papyrus the III disease ease was called AAA and certain re remedies bere ere suggested another an cl chent mt reference occurs in the sanskrit Sans crit narita harita Saml ilta chere here it la is r recorded cc corded thit that the trouble nas ft as due to sh allowing clay cla dut but nh ateer the ancients knew about the soon disappeared from the stock of common knoN knowledge ledge and it was only in as 3 that dubant rediscovered the worm norm which Is responsible for such mide widespread spread distress some vears nears later griesinger Gnes inger associated the presence of the worm norm with nith profound ana anaemia ercla in egypt later on it was discovered to be the cause of tropical ana anaemia ernia in brazil but it was not till the boring of I 1 the st gothard tunnel in the cart early eighties that the disease attracted general attention among the medical men of europe the italian excavators excava tors suffered so EO much from this parasite that increase ing interest was taken in it and now non for the first time in modern medical histon history it was inas recognized as ca causing us n g a dangerous and not infrequently a ta fa tal disease our knoal knowledge edge of the geographical distribution of the orm norm has in within ithan the last 25 years increased amazingly amazing lN and it has at the present time been found in so many man countries that one may almost state that or an allied genus is IB generally endemic it if one may apply this word to a worm norm rill all over the globe between the parallels 51 degrees 31 minutes teS north and 30 20 degrees south wherever the character and the moist condition of the soil favors its presence in egypt it is found in nearly all the natives in parts of india 75 per cent are infected and it seems to be equally corn com mon men in ceylon the straits settlements java jana china japan the philippines the farmer parts of south america and the west indies and in the warmer armer parts of europe arid and north america in 1902 was discovered in the tin mines of Corni cornwall Nall england probably introduced hi by the return of miners from the Trans transvaal or other sub tropical districts and it has caused infinite harm in the coal mines of central europe especially in westphalia once established in its larval state in the treat heat and the moisture of a mine it is very cry difficult to eradicate As is usual with parasitic worms norms the malo male is compa comparatively insignificant in number ind and size compared v N female there seem to be about three times as many of the latter as of the former and whereas the male measures from six to eleven millimeters in length the female meas inea s ures from seven semen to fifteen millimeters like all animals that it live I 1 in the dark these little creatures are without pigment and are grayish nitrite but sometimes are stained red noth the blood they absorb from their host cannot shut its mouth it is perpetually open inside it is provided with certain strongly hooks into this mouth and indeed quite a long nay in to the gullet is dragged a portion of the soft goft mu membrane train lining of the alie alimentary caral of tho the host arid and it is on tho the cells coi covering ering till that the worm norm occa occasionally a blood vessel is ruptured and thui a pinkish tinge is given ghert to the parasitic macrin but according to looss loos the blood corpus corpuscles cles are not digested it Is beli believed eed that from time to time the vorm v orm shifts its po position and th tint lt the abandoned bite continues to bleed an and d certainly there are arc some large glands opening into the mouth of the worm like those that exist in tho the pharynx of the leech which ni y very nery well nell secreto same bome antl and coagulating secretion A female produces a never nee ending rending stream of eggs ON oval a transparent delicate looking structures structure do not develop very far until they have haic lasbyd assad away from the body of their host should liou however eer the they reach a moist slot biot in a mine or tunnel or on the ground the development Is so rapid that in one or two dis a young larva 1 iq 13 3 hatched out very hungry and very vigorous deou devouring ring ilia whatever teNer organic matter it can find so that within a week it trebles its size but even then their it I 1 is epry pry minute by the end of its firt seven senen days of tree free existence eis tenca the elbio haj aaa twice cast cart its skin arid and after its second moult it undergoes undergo ps a rest lest lesecure cure passing a stage combar able with nith the chrysalis in insects in this condl condi tion it will nill live tor for aneel acel 8 and months moving it 11 at all but languidly in mud ur or damp earth rho question now arises how hoin do these larvae lind their way a into the alimentary canal of man mana nil fill a few years cars ago it vias nas always alas thought that he was nas direct either by means of Ir inking infected or by means of the p pr per r chich the borm induces tor for their arf a TI A ae s A A k 7 55 adula L R 05 rocq q awal ITY tA rURAL RE Q I 1 j 61 0 ACCA TOR gogof of presence stimulates human beings to eat clay and earth but there is another route and one ol of tile the romances roman coB ot of science must now nov be ba explained towards tho the end of the list last century cen tur when ahen chalen was prevalent alent in alexandria doctor looss tho the distinguished was nas Ni working in the local laboratory at the larva lana of in transferring rome of 0 the water containing larvae larae from one watch glass to another by means of 0 a pipette he accidentally spilt a drop on to the back of his hand ile he did not wait malt to wipe nipe it off but after a time he noticed that the place where the drop had fallen was intensely irritable and had become reddened arid and inflamed ile he then made a further experiment placing a arop of the fluid swarming arming sn with lanae lamas on the back of his hand he allowed it partially to dry up ahe burning and the reddening ot of the skin began over again and a little later when lie he removed whit was nas left of the fluid very ver few of the were mere to be found 1 ahe I he great majority of them had dl disappeared appeared these little trifles gave doctor looss furiously to think as the french sa ind and he then repaired to the hospital where he found a boi whose abose leg was about to be removed lie he dropped i r little of the fluid full of anc costoma lanae on the leg and after the leg was nas cut oft off the area in question was removed and cut into sections nhen hen these soc see eions were examined through the microscope the little larae lanae were nere seen forcing their xay way down into the body bodi through th the skin espe clalla trav cling by the hair follicles arid and to i I 1 lesser extent through the sweat glands into the deeper layers lasers of the skin sidn it was of course nn jin possible to pursue this work with nith the harrim and doctor looss had bad to early can on his with mith another species the larvae of A cani caninus nuni were vere traced into the blood vessels bessels ind of the dog swept along in the blood stream then easily eiselt reach the lungs once arrived in the lungs lunge the labnao liane have no difficulty difficult in ersing the soft pulmonary tissue and making their wa in the cavity of the respiratory respirator organs thence travel along the bronchial tubs ind arid so to the windpipe and into the larynx arid and up il it most into the mouth and here they turn back into the oesophagus ird so down into the stomach arid and intestine the whole or of this remarkable remar kible journey takes i from seven to ten tell day dav tire the then shed the skin of ilicia their second moult and later when they reach the lie alimentary all mentar cinal canal the undergo a third and fourth or moult in eight daas they become capable of reproduction and in a iera vcr few more diva dies the eggs are aie then passing anay from the bodi bode of the host tile tho whole cycle ot of ther life history his has taken under No corable rable circum stances st inces from a month to six si weeks under enfa circumstances it can ho be almost indefinitely prolonged rhe file truth of this thib vcr nor remarkable and until doctor I 1 booss investigations quite un heard of life histon y is now accepted aCCept Ld doctor sam iron bon however thinks think that eliat in many cases tho the an cylo stoma larvie larvae reach the canal nith the blood stream arid and penetrate its walls Nit without hout pissing passing through the lungs since the middle of tile seventeenth century a fatal dibease has been known to exist in the warmer parts of america in 1648 piso in his historia Hl Hi storla Itle medico dico Braz brazilian iliae gives an account of 0 it a disease which he calls Oppi lacao and MO o aw WW from that time forward numerous writers have described the symptoms of this disease without M phout appreciating or understanding its cause As undoubtedly undoubted deserves des cries we e have mentioned dubant the credit of first associating miners amerla or tunnel disease with the presence 0 of a para bitic worm one of the many troubles doubles which has for foi more lears ears than one cares to re rei all vexed vex e d the economist of the he southern part of the united states Is the existence of 0 a large population of degraded white people sometimes referred to by bv the blick black citizens citi ens as poor mean whites hites or poor white trash about the be ginning of the present century professor stiles ot of washington was nas able coshow to show that the de plo rable condition ot of this degenerate people was as due not so much to original sin as to the fact that they were nere infested by bv a worm vorm which was thought to be identical with inith the toma dou denale we have hane described de above dut but ten vears ears ago stiles found out ou t that the worm although its effects were ere identical with the an cylo stoma was of a different dif feren I 1 species and eien e en gnus ganus and this he named N american amen cinus us it was nina for some come beirs ears thought that this IN americanos americ anus i as peculiar to america and tile the uninformed libeled labeled it the germ of idleness schoolmasters and college presidents looked for or ward to a virus weakened under cultivation until u inoculation would confer immunity to laziness on schoolboys and college students A little later some pygmies pigmies from the forest who inho were brought by some enterprising impre sarlo sario tor for exhibition in music musi hills chIlls passed down doin the nile and on reaching calro were liere inspected by bi looss who discoN discovered ered in them amerl canua probably this wis introduced some cell ago into america from africa with nith the slaves blaies and la is part of the debt the nex new world lias has hail had to pay for the institution ot of slavery since then hns has shown shonn tint that Ise cator is almost as widely di distributed in the old horld orld as in the rew nei there ire are man detilla about the tunnel worm chich ire ill III adapted for newspaper nes piper discussion but one mi at leist est point out thit xyth ith proper it mn min be control controlled ltd to i a great ex e tent it is controlled in the panama P in una canal region and other districts by b the american sanitary ban itar officials official to to take but one e ample in porto rico hip dip deaths caused by b anc ancito nere placed at 30 per cent of the local death rate but b assiduous and most careful treatment the authorities in tint that island in iniel to cure curc 06 per cent of the inhabitants ind and bract practically calin cured another per cent abille in 40 per cent of their patients nere ere still under tinder treatment al a the time of rhe re mining 1171 lc i per pei beut ceased to return and on 02 per cant died this admirable mirable arl work nork nas aa effected any cost the triumph pi the Anier knieri lenns cinq in making makin th caell zone a health resort report Is bummed u ul b by mr jimes james arnce late ambassador amb isiador ai a dashington Nas hington in these thee norus cords its success in ct CS carling caping all charges of partiality or corruption as vell as in producing in the boik aik oik arid and contentment among the workers iNor kers has indeed beer been such euch as to make some persons draw from it in an argument in prior of state control of all greit gre it enterprises to the observer it Is rath er au an instance stanca in of the effle efficiency lency obtainable by vesting full control in men whose uprightness ind capi capacity city haxe haie already been proved herond question who nho hivo have not risen by political method ine arid and haie nothing to gain by b an am misuse of their potters so tar far as any political moral call be arami from the case that moral recommends not democratic collectivism but militar mill tar autocracy