ON CREEPING DISEASE

A CLINICALLY disti i ict case of creepingdisease was fouiul lii t h e Dermatological Department at the Aichi Medical College in February, 1918. The writer of this thesis could extricate an aiiiinacule alive at the end of the lesion. The worm was confiruaed to be a species of the Gnathostoma. Now there are very few species of (rnafho.'itoviaj and they are seldom fouud. In Japan only two cases have been recorded by Yoshida^" at Osaka. They were found m the stomachs of pigs. Moreover the only Gnainosiamabe\^ev 1 'I iij the human bod)^ are four cases recorded fro^t Siam, viz. Qriau,iostovia siamense, and in these cases the parasites did not cause any creeping disease but only made a small knot in some pz.vt of the human skin. U]ider these circumstances the Griaihoy-loma found is in itself a zoological rarity. Besides, we have never heard of any case of creeping disease caused by a Gnathosloma in the whole range of dermatological history. Accordingly I resolved to make a study of my case and publish tlie result. Now there have been no less than forty-three reports of creeping disease, but cases in which the causative creature has been extricated * Toehida, Text-hook of Parasites of Domestic Animals.