"كتيّب الجزيرة العربية. مجلد II. ١٩١٧" [‎٣‎٦‎٩] (٥٤٢/٣٧٣)

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HYGIENE AND DISEASE
cycles of life, one in man, the other in a very minute crustacean,
a ' fresh-water flea' {Gyclops), which is found in wells and water-
holes. If this minute creature gets into the drinking-water, the
embryo worms are set free in the stomach, and one or more of them
may finally make its way to the surface of the body, just under the
skin. Here the female worm may grow many inches long, so that
it looks like a piece of string under the skin. It pierces the skin
at one point, and discharges its young into water (when the skin
is bathed in water),—hoping, as it were, that the water may contain
Cyclops, which will give the young worms a start in life !
Thus, the only risk is in the drinking of unboiled or unstrained
water, with a live Cyclops in it, containing the live young of the
worm. There are well-devised ways of dealing with the adult
worm under the skin.
Leprosy, a very slowly-progressive disease, gradually affecting
the skin and the fibrous tissues, or the nerves, and finally leading
to severe disfigurement. The actual germs of leprosy were dis
covered by Hansen, in 1874. They have some resemblance to the
germs of tubercle ; and there are points of resemblance between
the two diseases. It is not fully known how the disease is acquired ;
but there is some evidence that it may be conveyed by bugs. The
old fear of lepers was exaggerated ; a man may live and work
among them for years, and take no harm.
Malaria. The cause of malaria is a protozoal organism, which
was discovered, in 1880, in the blood of a malarial patient by
Laveran, a French army surgeon. In 1894, Manson, after his
discovery that the mosquito is the intermediate host of filarial
disease, advanced a similar theory of malaria—that the mosquito
is its intermediate host between man and man. In 1898, Ross,
after three years' work, proved the truth of this theory. During
1899-1901, ' malaria expeditions from our own country and from
Germany, were incessantly going out to the tropics ; Italy also was
hard at work. Crucial experiments were made by men on them
selves, in India, Italy, New York, and London. Two of these
many experiments may be recalled here :—
(1) In 1900, a wooden hut was set up in the Roman Campagna,
in a water-logged jungly bit of the district, intensely malarial,
a place ' where the permanent inhabitants all suffer from malarial
disease, and where the farm-labourers, who come from healthy
parts of Italy to reap the harvest, after a short time all contract
fever'. The hut was made mosquito-proof with netting and fine
wire screens. In this mosquito-proof hut. Dr. Low, Dr. Sambon,
and others lived for about three months—all through the ' malaria
ARABIA H ao