The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Volume 4, Issue 5, 1955

The following cure rates were achieved in Ascaris lumbricoides infections with piperazine citrate syrup: one day treatment, 74 per cent; two days, 94 per cent. A five day course with smaller daily doses but a larger total amount gave a cure rate of 91 per cent. A minor toxic side effect, possibly due to the drug, was observed in only one of 136 patients.

A case of intestinal myiasis due to larvae of Muscina stabulans (Fallén) was observed in a child from Laramie, Wyoming. This is believed to be the second reported case from North America.

The Rural Hospital, Its Structure and Organization. (Also available in French). By Dr. R. F. Bridgman, 162 pp., illustrated. WHO monograph series No. 21. Geneva, World Health Organization; 1955. $4.00, £1, Sw. fr. 12. (clothbound). Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2960 Broadway, New York 27, N. Y.

Malaria, A World Problem, by E. J. Pampana, M.D., and P. F. Russell, M.D., M.P.H., 72 pp., illustrated. (Reprinted from Chronicle of the WHO, 1955, 9:31–100) Geneva, WHO, 1955. 3/6, $0.70, Sw. fr. 2. (paper).

The Halogenated Aliphatic, Oletinic, Cyclic, Aromatic, and Aliphatic-Aromatic Hydrocarbons Including the Halogenated Insecticides, Their Toxicity and Potential Dangers, by W. F. von Oettingen, M.D., Ph.D., National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. Public Health Service Publication No. 414. 430 pp. Washington, Supt. of Documents, U. S. Govt. Printing Office. 1955. $2.50.

The Anemias, with Supplement on Blood Morphology in Diagnosis. Publ. by Eli Lilly & Co., 4th Edition: 132 pp., Indianapolis, Eli Lilly & Co., 1955.

This volume covers the diseases caused by protozoa, helminths, arthropods, fishes, reptiles and certain mammals. Arthropods as vectors of disease are discussed in detail. There is a section on parasitologic and immunologic diagnostic tests. Useful, well-organized, brief tables summarize: 1. the natural history of the more important protozoan and helminthic parasites of man; 2. pathologic effects and clinical manifestations produced by animal agents of disease; 3. diagnostic examination for animal agents of disease; 4. standard therapeutic procedures. The text material is well-organized and is supplemented by excellent drawings and photographs. Unfortunately the illustrations of the malaria parasites are in black and white rather than in color. The bibliography is complete, current and includes many of the more important contributions. This excellent textbook, written by a master parasitologist, will prove especially valuable to medical students. Physicians, graduate students in soology and parasitology, laboratory technologists, and public health workers will also find this volume very useful.

This map furnishes comprehensive information on a variety of subjects related to the geographical distribution of visceral, cutaneous and muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis. Centered above on its face is a Briesemeister elliptical projection of the world, showing (in red) different population densities, while the prevailing winds in areas of high frequency of these diseases are indicated by green arrows. Below there is an enlargement of the countries in which the infections are indigenous, with two degrees of density for each (in black for visceral, in red for cutaneous, and in green for muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis). Greater enlargements are found for the Middle and Near East, the countries bordering on the western Mediterranean, and Peru. Additional data include “spotting” with the letter “R” of regions where reservoir hosts have been reported, and names of the species of Phlebotomus proved or believed to be the vectors are recorded near the sites where they have been collected.

Upon inspection of the Table of Contents and upon noting the types of diseases covered, the question arises as to the purpose and the need for a book encompassing the field described in the title. In the Foreword, it is pointed out that viral and rickettsial infections which involve the skin, the eye, and mucous membranes are common and that “some of them are banal and merely troublesome; others may produce exceedingly chronic and disabling destructive effects upon the skin and mucous membranes; and still others produce cutaneous lesions which are incidental but important signs of systemic disease”. The underlying thread that ties together the diversity of conditions covered in the book is, therefore, the emphasis on ocular, dermal and mucous membrane manifestations and not on the specialty of the practitioner most likely to see the patient.This unifying theme is suggested in the preface, where it is stated that "there is lacking in the presently available literature on viruses and rickettsiae any complete and detailed consideration of many of those diseases that affect primarily the covering of the body, the skin and conjunctive or the mucosa of the external officers.

Each new edition of the American Public Health Association manual on Control of Communicable Diseases in Man is an event in the public health world. The eighth edition has been prepared by a committee of fifteen outstanding authorities in the field, with the collaboration of the principal American and British health organizations, which designated representatives to consult with the committee in order to reach common agreement as to facts and opinions. The aim is to provide an informative text for easy reference by public health workers, professionals in the medical field, military physicians, and health workers stationed in foreign countries. The format and its pocket-size add to its usefulness; it does not of course substitute for standard textbooks. While it largely expresses American practices and ideas, it has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Finnish, which should give it a wider usefulness.

To the Editor:

John Ruskin once said: “The work of science is to substitute facts for appearance, and demonstrations for impressions.” It might well be added that “when an impression has once been given expression, it is frequently quoted long after it has been disproved by facts.”

It seems unfortunate that in an attempt to honor the workers in Panama (Minton, Muller, and Cohen, Am. J. Trop. Med. & Hyg., 3: 951–963, 1954), honors which they richly deserve, errors have been perpetuated, some of which have long since been corrected by the workers who published them. I quote from the above article: “Following Darling's studies which showed the rat to be a disseminator of relapsing fever in Panama and the work of Lawrence Dunn on the tropical bedbug in relation to its transmission, Bates and St. John in collaboration with Dunn proved by human experimentation that the human tick, Ornithodoros talaje, is the transmitting agent of the relapsing fever in Panama and produced evidence to show that the relapsing fever spirochete (Borrelia) of Panama is a distinct species for which they later suggested the name, Spirochaeta neotropicalis.”