Reconsideration of Dr. Allen's Report about Hemoptysis Patients from High Prevalence of Archaeoparasitological Paragonimiasis in Korea
10.3347/kjp.2019.57.6.635
- Author:
Min SEO
1
;
Jong Yil CHAI
;
Jong Ha HONG
;
Dong Hoon SHIN
Author Information
1. Department of Parasitology, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan 31116, Korea.
- Publication Type:Letter
- Keywords:
Paragonimus spp.;
Hemoptysis;
Joseon Dynasty;
Korean mummy;
Horace Allen
- MeSH:
Autopsy;
Classification;
Hemoptysis;
Humans;
Inpatients;
Korea;
Missionaries;
Mummies;
Outpatients;
Paragonimiasis;
Prevalence;
Protestantism
- From:The Korean Journal of Parasitology
2019;57(6):635-638
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Horace N. Allen, an American physician, was a Presbyterian missionary to Korea. In 1886, he wrote the annual report of the Korean government hospital, summarizing patient statistics according to outpatient and inpatient classification for the first ever in Korean history. In the report, he speculated that hemoptysis cases of outpatient might have been mainly caused by distoma. Allen’s conjecture was noteworthy because only a few years lapsed since the first scientific report of paragonimiasis. However, he was not sure of his assumption either because it was not evidently supported by proper microscopic or post-mortem examinations. In this letter, we thus revisit his assumption with our parasitological data recently obtained from Joseon period mummies.
