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in the course of time, again become heavily infected. The above- 
mentioned experience occurred in a comparatively restricted community 
in which the infected individuals, being under disciplinary control, 
could be rernoved from the scene of infection, i.e. the mines, and debarred 
from returning until such time as the authorities considered them to 
be in a suitable condition. If the result, imperfect as it was, was 
difficult to attain under such circumstances, how much more formidable 
must be the task in an extensive community in which the only control 
is public opinion fostered, it may be, by well directed educational and 
preventive efforts, but supported only by a more or less imperfectly 
administered public health law! 
It must be added, however, that the more restricted the area to 
which a certain number of infected persons are confined the more 
heavily is that area likely to be polluted and the more intense will the 
infection become. 
In Queensland both species of hook-worm are widely distributed 
but they are confined chiefly, if not entirely, to the coastal belt extending 
throughout a length of over one thousand miles. In the drier regions 
inland the parasite appears to be entirely absent and the few cases of 
infection occurring there have probably been imported from infected 
areas. It must be noted, however, that so far as I am aware no 
systematic search has yet been made inland, and although practically 
no cases of disease have been recorded that fact does not preclude the 
possibility of infection being present. The indigenous population of 
North Queensland is comparatively small and as they do not come 
a great deal into contact with the white people, except in particular 
localities, their in-fluence in spreading the disease cannot be very great. 
I am informed by Dr Breinl that during the past six years he has not 
observed a single case of the disease in an aboriginal. 
There is, however, a considerable number of immigrant people, 
Chinese, Cingalese, etc. who find occupation as gardeners, cooks, 
laimdrymen and so forth. These live in intimate contact with the 
rest of the population and coming, as many of them have done, from 
highly infected countries, there can be but little question that they 
have done much to introduce and spread the disease in North Queens¬ 
land. Among the white population, again, it is noticeable that a 
certain proportion of the cases of infection occur among the families 
of immigrants from southern Europe, in many parts of which 
Ankylostomiasis is fairly common. It is quite possible that many of 
these people have imported along with them a number of hook-worms. 
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