Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
No investigations seem to have been made in recent years as to the prevalence of intestinal worms among the general population in this country. The present results are derived from the microscopical examination of the stools of 500 in-patients of Guy's Hospital. The cases were taken consecutively by beds all through the hospital, without any selection, over a period of ten months, and comprise surgical and medical as well as gynaecological and other special patients. Nearly all were inhabitants of London.
page 275 note 1 The presence of Oxyuris is often missed by the ordinary methods of examination of faeces. We have had the opportunity of comparing in a number of cases the results of the microscopical examination of faeces with a subsequent microscopical search for the adult worms after the administration of thymol. In the former the eggs or worms were seen extremely seldom, while in the latter specimens of Oxyuris were nearly always found.
page 275 note 2 Metchnikoff, Bull. de l' Acad. de Méd. vol. XLV. 1901, p. 301.Google Scholar
page 276 note 1 It is possible, through hardly credible, that the eggs found might have been the eggs of some other species of Trichocephalus which had been swallowed and passed through the body as such. In any case, the infection must be faecal whether it be human or animal.
page 276 note 2 It follows from the long duration of the infection that this figure is to some extent an accumulated result, and possibly also partly the result of conditions now past.
page 277 note 1 Leuckart, Transl. Hoyle, i. 1887, p. 151.
page 277 note 2 Cobbold, Parasites, 1879, p. 179.
page 277 note 3 C. Davaine, Traité des Entozoaires, 1877, p. 209.
page 277 note 4 Blanchard, Traité de Zoologie Médicale, 1889, i. p. 783.
page 277 note 5 Bull. no. 13, Hyg. Lab., U.S. Pub. Health and Mar.-Hosp. Serv., Washington, 1903; other statistics will be found here.
page 277 note 6 Report of Commission on “Anemia” in Porto Eico, San Juan, 1904.
page 277 note 7 This Journal, iv. 1904, p. 477; subsequent experience has fully confirmed this figure.
page 277 note 8 Dobson, Report on Ankylostomiasu, 1892.
page 277 note 9 Hektoen and Riesman, Pathology, i. 1901, p. 344.
page 277 note 10 This point is brought out in the Erlangen statistics (children 4.8, adults 13.1 p.c.), but not in those from Kiel (children 32.5, adults 29.5 p.c.).
page 278 note 1 Mast-cells were always present, though none were found in cells actually enumerated.
page 278 note 2 Cf, Blanchard, Archives de Parasitologie, III. 1900, p. 485.Google Scholar
page 279 note 1 This Journal, IV. 1904, p. 468.Google Scholar