Abstract
THE cause of Bilharzia disease of man was discovered by Bilharz in 1851, and it is only now, more than half a century later, that the mode of trans-mission has been discovered. The disease is due to the presence of flukes,in the mesenteric and vesical veins, or, rather, it is in the main the eggs which these worms lay that cause the inflammation which has such dire consequences. The cause being known, helminthologists of repute then naturally sought to determine how infection arose. It was known that the eggs hatched in water into ciliated embryos, and from what was also known of the life-history of other flukes, it was natural to conclude that in this case-1 also the embryos next entered into the tissues of some fresh-water mollusc. This could be shown in two ways, either (j) by experimentally infecting molluscs with the larval forms (ciliated embryos), or (2) by dissecting molluscs from an endemic area arid finding the larval forms in them; All attempts in these directions proved in vain. But it is astounding “to learn in this report that whereas some:fifty Species of fresh water molluscs occur in Egypt, only nine species are ecorded as having been examine” various observers who took up the proferh. Nine; Species out of fifty. One cannot help adding that these observers really deserved their bad luck not to hfeve by, accident stumbled on the right mollusc.”
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S., J. The Transmission of Bilharzia Disease by Snails 1 . Nature 96, 551 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/096551a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096551a0