Correspondence

Abstract

To the Editor:Excuse our rather tardy response to the letter of Dr. Allen W. Cheever regarding our article, “Tissue degradation of calcific Schistosoma haematobium eggs” which appeared in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 25: 595–601 (1976).In our paper we compared and discussed the available data on egg degradation in man and the mouse, and stated, “It may be unjustified to extrapolate calcific egg degradation results achieved by transfer of calcific eggs from humans to mice (p. 599, last paragraph). That conclusion does not substantially differ from Dr. Cheever's main point of contention.We did not conclude that “removal of eggs from the sandy patch in the human bladder radically altered the ability of the host to react to the eggs,” but rather that in transferring the eggs we had altered the equilibrium established between the calcific eggs and local host tissue.