Strongylus subtilis in Japan. 



By 



Prof. I. Ijima. 



In a recent number of the " Centralblatt fiiu Bakteriologie und 

 Parasitenkunde," * Looss lias described as a new human parasite, 

 Sfrongyhifi subtilis, which he had found i)i the intestine of certain 

 natives (Fellahin) of Egypt. A glance at his description and the ac- 

 companying figures at once recalled to my mind and in fact sufficed for 

 me to recognize in that newly named Nematode species, the parasitic 

 worm, which Prof. Ogata had discovered more than six years ago in the 

 stomach of a Japanese woman and on which I also made some observa- 

 tions at that time with kind permission of the discoverer. 



I deem it important to state the circumstances that led Ogata to his 

 discovery. In the middle of March 1889, a disease of unknown origin 

 and n.ature (vide further on) suddenly began to rage with violence 

 among the inhabitants of a very restricted locality on the west coast of 

 Miura Peninsula in Prov. Sagami. The three contiguous villages 

 Nagasaka, Otawa and Sashima were the principal seat of affliction. It 

 spread rapidly like an epidemy, but fortunately soon to decline in energy, 

 so that at the end of the month, in less than two weeks' time from the 

 first outbreak, no more fresh cases seemed to have occurred. In all 

 some eighty persons were believed to have been attacked ; of these no 

 less than fifty-three died, mostly only two or three days after the first 

 manifestation of symptoms. It is perhaps worth mentioning the fact 



* I. Abth., XYIir. Bd., Xo. 6. "Strongylus subtilis n. sp., ein bisher unbekannter 

 Papasit des Menschtni in Egypten," Von Dr. A. TjOOSs. 



