EDITORIAL. 71 



dying with ailments that should not have killed them; their powers of 

 resistance were evidently impaired. The habits and customs of the 

 people with reference to eating immediately suggested a clue and a 

 remedy. The clue pointed to some extraordinary drain on the system. 

 There was plenty of food, but imperfect nourishment. To discover the 

 cause, a routine practice was inaugurated and the faeces of every prisoner 

 in the prison were examined either by members of the staff of the Bu- 

 reau of Science or by Dr. Shattuck, of the Bureau of Health, for the 

 presence of ova of intestinal parasites ; these were found to be present in 

 about 60 per cent of all cases examined. Active therapeutic measures 

 were inaugurated to rid the patients of the causes of these debilitating 

 troubles and the result was immediately satisfactory ; the death rate fall- 

 ing below 20 per thousand. 



The prevailing diseases treated in Hospital A, Bilibid Prison, were 

 agchylostoma, 1,537 cases; amoebic dysentery, 551 cases; acute dysentery, 

 174 cases; cholera, 18 cases; pneumonia, 62 cases; beriberi, 60 cases; 

 conjunctivitis, 221 cases, and malaria, 174 cases. 



During the previous year only 39 cases of agchylostoma were treated 

 as compared with 1,537 cases during the present year. There have been 

 551 cases of amoebic dysentery treated as against 111 cases for the 

 preceding year. These figures do not by any means indicate a greater 

 prevalence of this disease and may be explained on the ground that 

 the cases were detected by the systematic stool examinations which have 

 been practiced. Among the rarer parasites that have been found are 

 Paragonimus westermanii, 9 cases; Schistosoma japonicum, 15 cases: 

 Opistorchis sinensis, 5 cases; Balantidhim coli, 14 cases; Tcenia sagi- 

 nata, 20 cases; Tcenia solium, 2 cases; and Twnia nana, 3 cases. 



Victor G. Heisee. 



INTESTINAL PARASITES IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



The establishment of a separate department of medical zoology in 

 the curriculum of the Philippine Islands Medical School is a step that 

 has been taken to meet in a fundamental and comprehensive manner 

 the seriousness and magnitude of the problem presented by the extreme 

 prevalence of animal parasites among the Filipinos. 



The publications of Strong, Musgrave, Shattuck, Cole, Smith, Ash- 

 burn, Craig and others have contributed information regarding the 

 species of intestinal worms present in the Islands and the frequency 

 with which certain forms had been encountered, and have served as a 

 basis for the opinion generally prevalent that when the condition become 

 actually known, the population of the Philippines would present one of 

 the most striking instances in the history of medicine of almost univer- 

 sal infection with intestinal worms. With a view to obtaining accurate 



