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Observations on the Geographical and Ethnological Distribution of Hookworms1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Samuel T. Darling
Affiliation:
Professor of Hygiene, Faculdade de Medicina e Cirurgia de São Paulo, Brazil.

Extract

During the course of investigations, primarily directed to a study of the effects of hookworm infection on people in different parts of the tropics, I have been struck with the peculiar geographical and racial distribution of the two common species of hookworms infecting man, and with its bearing on certain ethnological problems.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1920

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References

1 Necator americanus has been found in a gorilla by Leiper and Looss.

1 Cowan (1910), The Maoris of New Zealand, Christchurch, N.Z., records that in 1909 a Chinese fishing junk picked up off the island of Chu San a party of three South Sea Islanders who were adrift in a canoe, they had mother of-pearl shell fish-hooks and other South Sea fishing tackle with them, and had been blown and drifted fully 2000 miles from a German possession in the Western Pacific.

1 A. duodenale unquestionably is a more malignant hookworm than Necator. It is possible that some of the alleged immunity of the negro to the effects of hookworm infection is due to the fact that Kaffirs and their descendants are very largely parasitized by Necator and not by A. duodenale.

1 Oldham, (1905), The Serpent and the Sun, London.Google Scholar

1 Perry, (1918), The Megalithic Culture, of Indonesia, Manchester.Google Scholar

2 There is however a trilithon at Haamonga, Tonga, which, according to tradition, was built by Polynesians (Samoans).