816 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [skss. 
and dressing-rooms, heated by warm pipes ; these rooms led into 
another large room, which was divided off into sixteen excellent 
waterclosets, provided with automatic flushing appliances. A 
little distance from the mouth of the pit was the hospital, in 
which on the date of my visit twenty-five miners were being 
treated for ankylostomiasis. 
Origin of the outbreak. — It is not exactly known how 
ankylostomiasis reached Westphalia. Some persons attribute it 
to Italian miners coming there after the opening out of the St 
Gothard tunnel in 1892; others blame infected miners who 
came from Belgium. Dr Tenholt is of the opinion that it was 
carried into Westphalia by miners from Hungary. At the 
present time no miner is taken on at any colliery until he brings a 
medical certificate stating that a microscopical examination of his 
faeces has been made, and that they are free from the ova of the 
ankylostoma. For this certificate the workman pays himself 
one shilling to the doctor — an arrangement wdiich the employers 
found necessary to enforce in order to check the frequent flitting 
about from place to place of the miners. Although Italian, 
Belgian, and Polish miners who have passed the doctor are 
accepted in Westphalia, miners from Hungary are upon no 
conditions accepted at all. 
The rapid spread of the disease through Westphalia is attributed 
to the opening out of new mines and the enormous demand for 
coal. Although coal mining in Westphalia originated about the 
year 1760, it was not until 1840 that the impetus was given to 
the industry which has made this part of Germany so prosperous 
to-day. Some opinion of the enormous demand for coal can be 
formed when it is stated that in one year within very recent times 
twenty thousand miners were introduced into Westphalia. These 
miners came from Posen in Prussia, from Poland, Hungary, and 
Italy. It was probably at the time of this large influx of foreigners 
that ankylostomiasis was introduced into the country. 
Until very lately the Westphalian coal mines were frequently 
the seats of explosions, due to the firing of coal dust. As these 
explosions were attended by considerable loss of life, the German 
Government in 1900 passed a law requiring the use of water- 
sprays in the mines. Whether as a consequence of this, or 
