MEDICAL SURVEY OF THE TOWN OF TAYTAY. 269 



beginning, our endeavor was to make our examinations for parasites upon 

 persons representative of the entire community, and it is believed that 

 with the care taken there could be no material selection of persons on the 

 ground of the condition of health. 



We have gone into this matter of selection of cases rather at length 

 for the obvious reason that as such selection is eliminated, the validity of 

 the results obtained is strengthened and the possibilities of their applica- 

 tion as an index to infection in the general population are broadened. 



We have no hesitation in saying, therefore, that the results obtained 

 l)y the examination of 1,000 persons in Taytay, as set forth in Table 1, 

 may safely be taken as an index to the amount of infection in the entire 

 comnnmity. It is obvious that the percentages based upon a large number 

 of infections are more reliable than those upon a few infections, since 

 the latter would be changed materially l)y finding ])ut a few additional 

 infections. 



The applicability of the amount of infection with the various intestinal 

 parasites found at Taytay to the population in other parts of the Islands 

 can be dealt with only in general terms, and the disparity between the 

 Taytay results and the results of other series of examinations made in 

 Manila indicate the necessity of caution in making a general application 

 of results. 



However, Taytay was selected for the work witli a view to obtaining 

 a community which would be representative of a large section of the 

 country, namely, the greater part of central and southern Luzon inhabited 

 by the Tagalogs. In much of this section the conditions of soil, and 

 climate, the occupation, and habits of the people are practically identical 

 with those in Taytay and for these parts it is reasonable to .suppose 

 that the incidence of infection with the parasites in question would 

 be about the same as that found at Taytay. In other regions, where 

 the country is mountainous, or the soil sandy, or iji towns situated on the 

 coast, the amount of probable infection can be predicted much less con- 

 fidently and we believe tliat only the actual examination of people living 

 under these different conditions will give as satisfactory infoi'mation 

 on the subject. 



In view of the figures obtained at Taytay, those which resulte<l from the 

 examinations of soldiers and of prisoners at Bilibid were evidently 

 misleading when taken as an index to the frequency of infection in the 

 general population, in that they indicated an excessively high f]'(H|uency 

 ■of infection with hookworms and amccha and too low a frequency with 

 Ascaris. Knowledge of the real incidence of these infections throughout 

 the Islands must depend upon a continuance of sucfi work as was done at 

 Taytay in various localities representing various existing conditions. 



89838- 5 



