814 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
SESS. 
The disease presents both local and general symptoms. In such 
hot countries as India, Assam, Egypt, and certain parts of South 
America, ankylostomiasis is found among the agricultural labourers. 
As the men and women in these countries work in the fields with 
bare feet, and the soil is often polluted with human and animal 
excrement, rich in parasitic ova, these ova, under the influence of 
heat and moisture, develop into actively moving larvae, which have 
the power of penetrating human skin, thereby giving rise to local 
inflammation and to skin eruptions, known as “water itch,” 
u water pox,” and so on, or they enter the general circulation, and 
ultimately reach the alimentary canal. Once there, they become 
the cause of anaemia, shortness of breath, puffiness of the feet and 
legs, symptoms which may become progressive and end in death. 
Having in the early part of last summer visited the Dolcoath 
mine in Cornwall, which was reported to be infected, and having 
examined, through the kindness of Mr Thomas, the manager, 
several of the miners who harboured the ankylostoma, I felt that 
I wanted to know more of this interesting malady. Accordingly, 
at the end of June 1904, I proceeded to Westphalia and to 
Hungary, in order to see for myself something of the ravages caused 
by the parasite in the mining districts of these countries. 
Accompanied by Mr Belger, of the Armstrong College of Science, 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I made my way to Bochum, and entered 
the Westphalian coal district from here. I wanted to meet Dr 
Tenholt, who is the recognised authority on ankylostomiasis in 
Germany, and who is also the medical head of the Knapp- 
schaftsverein, or miners’ union, whose headquarters are in Bochum. 
Besides, it is in the valley of the Ruhr that the disease has played 
havoc with the miners, been the cause of acute friction between 
the colliery proprietors and the workmen, and the cause of 
considerable expense to the owners. At the Elizabeth Hospital in 
Bochum, a well-appointed institution with four hundred beds, one 
wing is specially set aside for the reception and treatment of patients 
suffering from ankylostomiasis, and there are pathological labora- 
tories and annexa replete with apparatus for the examination of 
the dejecta of infected subjects. Dr Nagel, principal assistant to 
Dr Tenholt, is in charge of these laboratories, in which nearly three 
hundred young doctors have been specially trained in the methods of 
