THE HELMINTH PARASITES OF MAN. 301 



11.— THE HELMINTH PARASITES OF MAN IN AUSTRALIA. 



By T. HARVEY JOHNSTON, M.A., D.Sc, and J. BURTON CLELAND, M.D., Ch.M. 

 (From the Government Bureau of Microbiology, Sydney, New South Wales.) 



In this note we endeavour to bring together the various re- 

 ferences to the occurrence of the different helminths recorded from 

 human beings in Austraha. Though a goodly number have been 

 identified, yet most of them are rare, while only a few are common. 

 The main exceptions are the hydatid (the larval form of Tamia 

 echinococcus v. Sieb. or, more correctly, Echinococcus granulosus 

 Gmel.), Oxyitris, Ankylosioina, and Filaria hancrofti. 



Hydatids are very frequently met with in man in every part 

 of the Commonwealth. They are of such economic importance that 

 we are reserving until a later date a survey of the literature referring 

 to them. Ankvlostoma duodenale T)nhm\, ( — according to strict zoo- 

 logical nomenclature, perhaps more correctly known as Agchylos- 

 toma duodcnale), the "hookworm." is restricted to the coastal dis- 

 tricts of Queensland, where it is not uncommon. Filaria hancrofti, 

 Cobbold, more usually know^n under the name of its larva, 

 Filaria {Microfilaria) nocturna or F. sanguinis hominis, is now quite 

 ■common in Queensland, and is also found, though much less 

 frequently, in some of the other Australian States. Oxyuris vermi- 

 cularis is here, as elsewhere, quite a common parasite of children. 

 There have appeared recently some papers in which the majority 

 of the references quoted below have been collected. The first was 

 published by Dr. G. Sweet\ followed very closely by another from 

 one of us2. In addition to these two articles, more or less complete 

 lists of our known endoparasites of man have also appeared^, but 

 these do not contain any references to literature, though a number 

 of new records are established in them. However, all the above- 

 mentioned papers refer to the zoological side of the matter. 



The helminth parasites of man, as far as Australia is con- 

 cerned, belong exclusively to the Trematoda, Cestoda and Nema- 

 toda. 



Trematoda. — We may safely say that trematodes are practically 

 absent in Australians. Three parasites belonging to this class have 

 been recorded : — 



1. Fasciola hepatica, Abildg, the common " liver fluke," 

 found in sheep and cattle, has been found in man by Allen (Trans- 

 Intercol. Med. Congr. Austr. II. 1899, p. 1004) on three occasions 

 in five years in the Melbourne Hospital, seven worms being obtained 

 in one case, and one in each of the others, abscesses being present 

 in the liver of each patient. In addition to this reference there is 

 another in the Austr. Med. Journ., IX., 1864, p. 29, where a letter 

 from a Mr. Crawford of Swan Hill, Victoria, to a newspaper is 

 ■quoted. In this letter he stated that the blacks of the Lower 



(1) Sweet, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict. XXI. (n.s.), 1908 (1909), p. 454 sqq. 



(2) Johnston, Rec. Austr. Museum, \'U., 1909, p. 3:i9 sqq. 



(:i) Johnston, .4gr!C. Gaz. N.S. Wales, XX., 1909, p. 581 sqq. 

 Austr. .Med. Gaz., Sept., 1909, p. 479-481. 

 A'lii. Ret?. Bur. Microhm! o^x, N.S. Wales, 1909 (1910), pp. 75-6. 



