ANKYLOSTOMIASIS

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 59 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ANC-APO

ANKYLOSTOMIASIS , or ANenYLosTOMIAS1s (also called helminthiasis, "miners' anaemia," and in Germany Wurmkrank-
heit), a disease to which in

recent

RECENT

years much attention has been paid, from its prevalence in the mining industry in England, France, Germany, Belgium, North Queensland and elsewhere. This disease (apparently known in

Egypt

EGYPT

even in very ancient times) caused a

great

GREAT

mortality among the negroes in the West Indies towards the end of the 18th century; and through descriptions sent from Brazil and various other tropical and sub-tropical regions, it was subsequently identified, chiefly through the labours of Bilharz and Griesinger in

Egypt

EGYPT

(18J4), as being due to the presence in the intestine of nematoid worms (Ankylostoma duodenalis) from one-third to half an inch

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

. The symptoms, as first observed among the negroes, were pain in the stomach, capricious appetite, pica (or dirt-eating), obstinate constipation followed by diarrhoea, palpitations, small and unsteady

pulse

PULSE

, coldness of the skin, pallor of the skin and mucous membranes, diminution of the secretions, loss of strength and, in cases running a fatal course, dysentery, haemorrhages and dropsies. The parasites, which cling to the intestinal mucous membrane, draw their nourishment from the blood-vessels of their host, and as they are found in hundreds in the

body

BODY

after death, the disorders of digestion, the increasing anaemia and the consequent dropsies and other cachectic symptoms are easily explained. The disease was first known in Europe among the Italian workmen employed on the St Gotthard tunnel. In 1896, though prev iously unreported in Germany, 107 cases were registered there, and the number rose to 295 in 1900, and 1030 in 1901. In England an outbreak at the Dolcoath mine,

Cornwall

CORNWALL

, in 1902, led to an investigation for the

home

office by Dr Haldane F.R.S. (see especially the Parliamentary

Paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

, numbered Cd. 1843), and since then discussions and inquiries have been frequent. A committee of the British Association in 1904 issued a valuable report on the subject. After the Spanish-American War American physicians had also given it their attention, with valuable results; see Stiles (Hygienic Laboratory Bulletin, No. to, Washington, 1903). The American parasite described by Stiles, and called Uncinaria americana (whence the name Uncinariasis for this disease) differs slightly from the Ankylostoma. The parasites thrive in an environment of dirt, and the main lines of precaution are those dictated by sanitary science. Malefern, santonine,

thymol

THYMOL, C

and other anthelmintic remedies are prescribed.

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