A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 





Vol. XIV. No. 345. 



BARBADOS, JULY 17, 1915. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



fOOK-WORM disease, or Ankylostomiasis, 



Jean certainly be regarded as cue of the si 



I insidious and deterioral ing maladies affecting 

 West. Indian labour. Its prevalence is intimately 

 connected with the habits of the people, and for this 

 reason its eradication is a matter of considerable 

 difficulty. In many places, notablj in Demerara and 

 in Panama, intensive campaigns have been conducted 

 against the disease, and with success; but in some of 

 the smaller islands of the West Indies and in parts 

 of tropical America, practically nothing lias been done 

 to stamp out or i ven to lessen the evil. 



Ankylostomiasis is a disease produced by a small 

 round worm which is parasitic in the intestin 



man. The eggs of the parasite pass out in the excre- 

 ments, and as it is not habitual for the labourer to 

 make use of sanitary conveniences, the soil becomes 

 infected. Here the eggs, in the presence of moisture, 

 develop into larvae, some of which eventually penetrate 

 into the feet of other labourers and, finding their way 

 to the intestines, change into adult forms again, 

 attaching themselves bj means of hook processes to 

 the intestinal walls. 



One of the principal symptoms is anaemia resulting 

 from blood degeneration, but it is .also characteristic for 

 this disease to affect the nervous system. Alt 

 subjects sink into a state of indifference and apathy 

 approaching, in some cases, almost to ins.-mitv . Persona 

 -niteiing from the malady are therefore not desirous of 

 being treated, which is one of the reasons why 

 compulsory measures are so necessary. 



It can be readily understood, also, thai this bad 



effect upon the intelligence and physique renders 

 infected labour much interior to that which is healthy, 

 This applies both to estate conditions and to those 

 where the labourer works his own kind. Kidding 

 a district of Ankylostomiasis would be the first and 

 mosl important step towards improving the condition 

 of the agricultural class and of increasing its effii i 



The extent to which hook-worm disease is preval- 

 ent in the West Indies can be gauged bj perusal 

 oftwo recent reports! i ) (-)• At San Fernando in Trini- 

 dad, during March. .">!»•.">(> per cent, of the total persons 

 examined were found to be infected. A marked 



(i). Ankylostomiasis Operations! Bej ' oj the I ■ '• i national 



Health Commission, March 1915) Trinidad and Tobago: Council 

 Paper No. 45 of 1915. 



(■-). Report on Inky] si tasis in Antigua, by K. S. Mar- 

 shall, M.R.C.S., D.T.M.. etc. Published bj the Government 

 of the I.eewant Islands, 1915. 



