124 Beport of the Bilharzia Mission in Egypt, 1915 



periodically washed. The bulk of the lateral-spined eggs will be set free 

 and will rapidly hatch in the immediate vicinity of the proper intermediary 

 P. boissyi. The terminal-spined eggs which hatch are only those that have 

 been passed in the ffcces, and to this limited extent the BuUinus snails 

 will become infected. Within the village the stream is too shallow for 

 bathing. In the summer the children proceed higher upstream and to 

 the parent canal where BuUinus is unaccompanied by P. boissyi. It does 

 not necessarily follow, therefore, that the incidence of bilharzial dysentery 

 and htematuria due to B. mansoni and B. luematobia respectively should 

 correspond to the incidence of infection in the respective intermediary 

 hosts within the village. Unfiltered water for all uses is taken from this 

 stream into every house in Marg, so that the chances of infection within 

 the home seem very great, both from the use of the water for drinking and 

 for washing. Practically nothing appears to be known of the prevalence 

 of intestinal bilharziosis, especially among women. 



BiLHAEz's Before leaving the Sambon-Looss controversy, I have 



" FuNDA- necessarily to deal with Bilharz's original observation [27], 



mental" as Looss regarded this find of lateral-sj^ined and terminal- 

 Obseevation: spined eggs in the same female as one of the fundamental 

 ExPL\N\Tr N ^^^^^ °^ which his own view rested. 



When first seen by Bilharz the lateral-spined egg was 

 an enigmatical body. It was first thought to be possibly a kind of pupa; 

 only later did Bilharz conclude that it was definitely egg. Bilharz's find 

 of this peculiar body within the female is recorded, as translated by Looss, 

 thus : " such a body was, though once only, but quite undoubtedly, found 

 in the uterus of a female worm, the posterior part of which contained the 

 normal ova." 



Sambon contends that Bilharz did not here actually refer to a lateral- 

 spined egg, but to a pigmented body and that " he only says that a peculiar 

 brownish yellow body furnished with a lateral spine was found only once 

 within the oviduct of a female worm, the posterior part of which contained 

 the ordinary ova." There is no clear indication, according to Sambon, 

 that the ordinary ova were terminal-spined ova or that the point of his 

 remarks had reference to the position of the spine, rather than to the dark 

 yellowish discoloration. 



To this objection Looss replies later by quoting a further statement by 

 Bilharz : " Strange to say, the eggs appear under two different forms. The 

 two forms were found within the oviduct of the mother as well as in the 

 tissues of various abdominal organs of man." 



The latter quotation to my mind brings no support to the contention 

 that Bilharz found the two types within the same individual worm. Here 

 he apparently wishes to convey that the shape of the egg was already 

 determined before the egg left the female and was not a result of distortion 

 in passage through the tissues — a view that has been held later by others. 



On the other hand, having read carefully the original text, I am fully 



