ANKYLOSTOMIASIS 



1761 



Ankylostomiasis. 



Synonyms. — Ancylostomiasis (this is the latinized Agchylostomiasis, and 

 is a term much recommended by many authorities), Agchylostomiasis, Anchy- 

 lostomiasis, Uncinariasis, Dochmiosis, Dochmiasis. Latin : Anemia inter- 

 tropicalis, Hypoaemia intertropicalis, Geophagia (jpro parte) . English : Ceylon 

 anaemia, Negro consumption, Tropical chlorosis, Egyptian chlorosis, Miners' 

 anaemia. The Great-lazies (Florida), Tunnel- workers' anaemia, Hook-worm 

 disease, Porto Rican anaemia. French : Anemic des Pays Chauds, Cachexie 

 Africaine, Mai de Coeur, Mai d'estomac, Ankylostomasie. Italian : Anchilosto- 

 manemia, Anchylostomiasi, German : Ankylostomen-Krankheit, Tunnel- 

 krankheit, Wurmkrankheit. Spanish Aquilostomiasis. Portuguese 

 Oppila9a,o, Amerellao, Can9a9ao. Arabic : Rihagan, Sufura, Tun-tun. 



Definition. — Ankylostomiasis is a toxaemia resulting in a pro- 

 gressive anaemia, caused by Ancylostoma duodenale Dubini, 1843, 

 and Necator americanus Stiles, 1902. 



History. — The history of the discovery, together with the 

 structure, life-history, and geographical distribution of the two 

 parasites, has been described on pp. 666-673, and it now remains 

 to give an account of the history of the disease produced by them 

 in man. 



If the references contained in the Ebers papyrus, as well as those 

 in the ' Harita Samhita,' really refer to ankylostomiasis, they 

 would make the history of the knowledge of the disease very ancient. 

 It was, however, early recognized that there was a fatal disease of 

 unknown causation in the New World. Thus in 1648 Piso, in his 

 work ' Historia Medica Brasiliae,' gives an account of a fatal disease, 

 Oppilatio (or Oppiiagao), present in Brazil, by which he probably 

 meant ankylostomiasis. After him it was described by Pere 

 Labat in Guadeloupe in 1742, by Chevalier in St. Dominique in 

 1752, by Desportes in the same place in 1770, by Bayon in Cayenne 

 in 1780, by Hunter in Jamaica and Rodschield in British Guiana 

 in 1796, by Bryon Edwards in Jamaica in 1799, ^^^^ 1808 in 

 the United States, and by Moreau de Jonnes in 1816 in Guadeloupe, 

 while Chabert's celebrated account appeared in 1821. In Peru 

 Castelnau found it in 1820, Jobim in Brazil in 1835, and Clarke 

 in West Africa in i860. In the meanwhile a peculiar anasmia had 

 been found among miners, first of all in Hungary in 1786, and later 

 in France, Belgium, Germany, and Cornwall, which for a long time 

 was misunderstood, until Dubini's worms were found in the victims. 

 In fact, nothing certain could be said about this peculiar form of 

 ' tropical anaemia ' or ' miners' anaemia ' until Dubini found 

 Ancylostoma duodenale as the cause of the disease, thus definitely 

 separating ankylostomiasis from ' malarial cachexia,' and also 

 clearing the diagnosis of miners' anaemia and tunnel disease. He 

 proposed the name Agchylostoma for his new worm, deriving it 

 from dvKvXos, meaning 'bent,' and o-rofxa, meaning 'mouth,' 

 which he latinized into Agchylostoma, which therefore ought to have 

 remained as the name of the worm, though Ancylostoma is doubtless 

 a better rendering. Still, whether he misspelt the word or not, his 

 name, according to the old rules of nomenclature, ought to have 



III 



