60 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
a continuous abnormal excitation may be transmitted to the 
motor neurons from foreign bodies, sequestrae, calculi, helminths, 
and so forth. He believes this maintains a kind of tetanization 
of the hyperactive motor nerve cell of which the partial or 
complete epileptic seizure is the result. He adds that a super- 
posed toxic action has a tendency to hasten or intensify this. 
This looked promising, but unfortunately only one case of epi- 
lepsy occurred in the series. That was case 65, female, 10 years 
old, showing a marked flattening of the skull over the occipital 
region. Dr. Elias Domingo, of the department of psychiatry 
of San Lazaro Hospital, to whom the case was referred, gave it 
as his opinion that in addition to symptoms of marked mental 
deficiency the child was suffering from essential epilepsy. The 
child was infected with “Blastocystis,” Spirochseta eurygyrata, 
Trichwis, Ascaris, and hookworm. It was necessary to transfer 
her to the psychiatric ward at San Lazaro, so we were unable 
to observe the effects of anthelminthic treatment on her. 
Case 60 was admitted for chorea. She was infected with 
Ascaris and Trichuris. She seemed less restless after the ad- 
ministration of an effective dose of santonin, but she was dis- 
charged before we could observe any marked change in her 
condition. 
DISCUSSION 
The great factor with which to reckon here and the one that 
sets all schemes of sanitation agog is the total lack of apprecia- 
tion by children, the world over, of the most elementary prin- 
ciples of sanitation and personal hygiene. In this respect the 
Filipino child is no better and no worse than the child of any 
other race. With him as with the others if there is an obscure 
and unlikely means of contracting infection with any given or- 
ganism, he is exceedingly likely to find it. The fact that 100 
per cent of a small group, of children have been found to harbor 
parasites of one kind or another does not in the least constitute 
an indictment of the modern principles of hygiene and sanita- 
tion. It, however, calls for redoubled efforts to clean things up 
and keep them clean. More than that, it calls for the strength- 
ening of the one weak link in the chain — a closer attention to 
household hygiene — a task of such formidable proportions in the 
Tropics and the Far East in general as to seem practically an 
impossibility. 
One can picture the extent of the “clean-up” process that 
would be required to purge a community of Trichuris alone, a 
