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I A STATISTICAL STUDY OF THE IXTESTINAL PARASITES OF 
j 500 WHITE MALE PATIENTS AT THE UNITED STATES 
GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
By Philip E. Garrison, A. B., Brayton H. Eansom, ]\L A., and Earle C. 
Stevenson, B. Sc., 
Assistants in the Division of Zoology, Hygienic Laboratory , U. S. Public Health and 
Marine-Hospital Service. 
I Summary of results. — (1) The results show 13.2 per cent of the 
patients examined infected with intestinal parasites. The parasites 
found were hookworms ( Uncinaria americana or Agcliylostoma duo- 
denale^^)^ whipworms {Trichuris trichnira)^ seatworms {Oxyuris mr~ 
micularis)^ Cochin-China worms {Strongyloides stercoralis).^ and eel- 
worms {Ascaris limibricoides). No evidence of infection with tape- 
worms, flukes, or coccidia was found. (2) Our results differ from 
those of most foreign investigators principally in the lower rate of 
infection, in the absence of tapeworms, and in the presence of hook- 
worms and of the Cochin-China worms. (3) The results show that 
the percentage of infection tends to A^^ary inversely with the age and 
with the duration of institutional life of the patients. (1) They also 
indicate that army life is conducive to parasitic infection of the 
intestine, and, moreover, that a high percentage of the United States 
soldiers returning from seryflce in the Philippine Islands have intes- 
tinal parasites. (5) The presence of a moderate number of worms in 
the intestine seems to have no relation to the presence of undigested 
starch and meat in the dejecta or to the litmus reaction of the feces. 
Introduction. — By the courtesy of Dr. A. B. Richardson, superin- 
tendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane, a microscopic exam- 
ination of the feces of the patients in that institution was begun early in 
0 It could not be ascertained with certainty in some cases, from measurement of the 
ova, that the hookworms belonged to the species Uncinaria americana, as the number 
of the eggs xvas small and their size somewhat varying. In the great majority of 
infections, however, the eggs were found to be full 64 by 40 u or larger, and we 
would have little hesitation in calling them Uncinaria americana rather than Agchy- 
lostoma duodenale in every case, were it not for the fact that most of the patients had 
been in the Philippines, where the Old World form {Agcliylostoma duodenale) has 
been found. Final judgment as to the species of the hookworms must be reserved, 
therefore, until the adult worms can be obtained and examined. 
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