ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN. 197 



INFECTIONS WITH TKICHURIS. 

 (59 per cent.) 



If we confine ourselves to statistical reports based upon an adequate 

 number of cases (several hundred), much higher percentages of infection 

 with whipworms have been published for temperate than for tropical 

 climates. 



The highest rate of infection with Trichwris definitely reported was found by 

 Heisig in Germany in 1893 (45.21 per cent) ; the next, by Gubareff in Russia, 

 in 189G (43.62 per cent). In these cases, the total percentages of infections 

 with all intestinal worms were only 60.85 and 76.32, respectively. Boycott in 

 1904 reported 38.78 per cent of whipworm infections from Cornwall, England, 

 but only 98 men were examined. Grechaninoff (1890) found this parasite in 

 26.41 per cent of 583 persons examined in St. Petersburg. Other German 

 statistics for whipworms are: Sievers, Kiel, 1S87, 2,629 persons examined, 19.81 

 per cent infected; Roth, Bale, 1877-1880, 752 persons examined, 23.67 per cent 

 infected; Gribbohm, Kiel, 1872-1877, 972 persons examined, 32.20 per cent 

 infected; Heller, Kiel, 1872-1875, 611 persons examined, 30.60 per cent infected; 

 Miiller, Erlangen, 1862-1873, and Dresden, 1852-1862, 1,755 and 1,939 persons 

 examined and 11.11 and 2.57 per cent infected, respectively. 



Stiles and Garrison (1906) in examining 3,457 persons in the United States 

 found 7.72 per cent to be infected with whipworms. 



Cima (1893 and 1896) in the vicinity of Naples, Italy (subtropical), found 

 37.27 per cent of infection in examining 110 children. 



On the other hand,' we have the following statistics for whipworms from 

 populations in the tropics: Amemia Commission, 1904, Porto Rico, 4,482 persons 

 examined, 7.27 per cent infected; Daniels, 1901, British Central Africa, 251 

 examined, 2.79 per cent infected; Fearnside, 1900, India, 878 examined, 6.95 per 

 cent infected; Dobson, India, 1893, 1,249 examined, 4.40 per cent infected. 



While estimates have been made regarding the frequency of whipworm 

 infection in different populations ranging from 50 per cent (in Italy) 5 

 to 100 per cent (in Paris) it appears that our figures for the Philippines 

 (59 per cent) give a higher rate of infection with this parasite than has 

 ever been definitely reported upon a number of cases sufficiently large 

 to serve as an index to the general population, 7 This fact would seem 

 to give fairly conclusive proof to the view that the relatively low rates of 



5 Blanehard, Raphael: Traite De Zoologie Medicale. Paris (1889), 1, 785. 



Braun, Max: Die Thierischen Parasiten. Wiirtzburg (1903), 277. 



7 Estimates of the frequency of infection, without actual statistical proof, 

 would appear to be absolutely unreliable. While from 50 to 100 per cent of 

 the population of southern Italy was estimated to harbor whipworms, Cima's 

 examination of 110 children gave only 37.27 per cent of infection. Ascaris had 

 been estimated to be the most common intestinal parasite of man in the Philip- 

 pines, but actual statistics show it to be about one-half as frequent as whipworms 

 or hookworms. When the present investigation had proceeded to the examination 

 of 1,000 patients, the author estimated that the percentage infected with whip- 

 worms would approach very nearly to 90, and even expressed such an opinion in 

 a meeting of the local medical society; our final figures show only 59 per cent. 



