812 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 647 



with intestinal worms, while only 15 of 

 them (7.5 per cent.) showed a total of 16 

 infections ^(8 infections per hundred), of 

 which 14 cases (7 per cent.) showed whip- 

 worm infection. This represents an in- 

 crease of only 1.3 infections (0.65 infec- 

 tions per hundred persons) over what we 

 expected to find in the general intestinal 

 helminthiasis, and an increase of only 1.32 

 per cent, over what we expected to find in 

 whipworm infections. Considering the 

 very wet season we have had, and espe- 

 cially in view of the negative findings in 

 92.5 per cent, of the patients, these slight 

 increases can hardly be considered of im- 

 portance. 



In comparing the severity of the vermin- 

 ous infections (as judged by the number 

 of eggs present) with that reported for 

 typhoid by Guiart, in France, it was found 

 that the "Washington cases averaged only 

 0.47 + whipworm egg per slide, against 

 two eggs per slide in the French statistics. 



Turning to a method of indirect com- 

 parison, it is seen that while former ex- 

 aminations in this laboratory (for Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and for Connecticut) showed 

 that the greatest percentage (13.01) of 

 cases of whipworm infections was under 

 fifteen years of age, in the 200 typhoid 

 cases examined the greatest percentage 

 (47.5) of patients fell between the ages 

 of fifteen and thirty years, inclusive; 

 further, the percentage of cases of typhoid 

 does not vary parallel with the percentage 

 of cases of whipworm infection in the 

 other age groups. 



Comparing, in reference to sexes, the 

 statistics of whipworm infection in the 

 world at large, and in examinations made 

 for Connecticut and for the District of 

 Columbia combined, with those of the 200 

 typhoid patients examined, it is seen that 

 whipworms are more common in females 

 than in males, while of our 200 typhoid 

 cases 52.5 per cent, were males and 47.5 



per cent, were females. If the comparison 

 is restricted to the total helminthiasis of 

 cases examined in the District of Columbia, 

 it is slightly more favorable to the theory 

 under discussion. 



Making a similar comparison in reference 

 to the race of patients, it is seen that in 

 the 200 cases of typhoid under discussion 

 (reduced to figures approximately in har- 

 mony with the general relation of the races 

 in the population of the District) the 

 whites were to the negroes as 55.5 to 64, 

 while in the whipworm statistics in former 

 examinations the whites were to the ne- 

 groes as 3.75 to 9.79. The change in our 

 summer population would account for at 

 least a part of this excess of typhoid among 

 the negroes. 



The general conclusions are, therefore, 

 that a study of the intestinal helminthiasis 

 in 200 of the cases in the Washington 

 typhoid epidemic of 1906 has not supported 

 the theory that whipworms, eelworms, or 

 other species of intestinal worm bear any 

 necessary or common relation as an in- 

 oculating agent in typhoid fever; and that 

 the view recently expressed in France to 

 the effect that the treatment and pre- 

 vention of typhoid fever practically re- 

 duces itself to the treatment and prevention 

 of intestinal worms, especially of whip- 

 worms, does not obtain, at least so far as 

 this locality (Washington, D. C.) is con- 

 cerned. The question of the relation of 

 protozoa as inoculating agents in typhoid 

 is not considered in this report. 



On the Absorption of the Third Serum 

 Component : W. H. Manwaeing, Indiana 

 University. 



Besides amboceptor and complement, 

 hemolytic serum contains a third active 

 component. This third serum component 

 may possess hemolysis-increasing (auxi- 

 lytic) or hemolysis-decreasing (antilytic) 



