206 GARRISON. 



the Philippines toward amcebic infections is to consider all intestinal 

 Amceba as potentially pathogenic. 15 



Accepting such a view, our figures would appear to prove from a 

 statistical view point the wide prevalence of amcebiasis already recog- 

 nized by clinicians and to emphasize the extreme value of the prophylactic 

 measures urged by the Bureau of Health and the great need of rapidly 

 extending sanitary measures against this parasite. The magnitude of 

 the problem appears when we consider that if our figures for the 

 Bilibid prisoners (23 per cent) be applied to the total population of 

 the Islands, from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 people in the Philippine Islands 

 harbor intestinal Amceba. 



The unsolved biological problems in connection with Paragonimus, 

 Schistosoma and Opisthorchis, involving their embryonic development, 

 and intermediate hosts and modes of infection, leave us only general 

 measures of treatment and of prophylaxis in these infections. The 

 apparent localization of Paragonimus and Schistosoma in the southern 

 part of the Islands renders our figures of little statistical value, and 

 further work in the localities in question will be necessary in order to 

 determine their actual frequency of infection in infected localities. 



The situation in the Philippines in regard to the prevalence of in- 

 testinal worms calls for special consideration because of the high rate of 

 infection found, the peculiar character of the hookworm situation, and 

 because these infections are apt to be lightly regarded in the tropics. 



The prisoners at Bilibid showed an average of 142 infections with 

 intestinal worms for each 100 examined. Pifty-two per cent were in- 

 fected with hookworms, but it would appear that these parasites do not 

 produce the serious effects in the Filipino that they do in other races; 

 hence, they should be placed in the same category with other intestinal 

 worms. 



While it is generally recognized that verminous infections of the 

 intestine are indirectly and in an indefinite degree injurious, it is 

 extremely difficult to obtain and it is practically impossible to demon- 

 strate any accurate measure of the injury done. So far as we are aware, 

 the work which by its results has come nearest to demonstrating the 



15 It would not be within the purpose of the present paper to enter into a 

 discussion of the merits of the questions regarding the specific identity and 

 relative pathogenicity of intestinal Amoeba. If all intestinal Amceba are patho- 

 genic, it is a rather startling condition of affairs to find 23 per cent of a 

 population harboring this parasite; but it would appear that such a view is 

 rather in harmony than otherwise with the frequency of amoebic lesions found 

 at autopsy. In this connection, the reader is referred to earlier publications of 

 Musgrave and Clegg in the Philippine Journal of Science, and to Oilman's 

 report upon a series of 100 autopsies at the Philippine Medical School which 

 appears in the current number. 



