Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1910 — $1.000.000 To KILL A LITTLE WORM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

$1.000. 000 To KILL A LITTLE WORM

Mr. Rockefeller's gift of $1,000,000, bo be used in eradicating the hookworm disease,v fixes public attention on the dread scourge of the South. it was responsible for most of the lassitude and unwillingness to work of the so-called poor white trash”-—whereupon he was laughed out of court as the discoverer of “the germ of i laziness.” The bookworm, which is not a germ, is certainly no laughing matter. It is not peculiar to the Southern States, having been found in animals as early %s 1782. It was first recognized as the cause of a parasitic disease in 1843 in Italy, and in 1879 Its -action in exhausting the blood from the system was realized, ht succeeding years its wide prevalence was noted in Europe and .in soipe oases wera traced to the United States; but it was not until 1902 that the existendte of a purely American variety was. demonstrated and announced by Dr. Stiles, a zoologist connected with the United States government , service. The appearance and habits of- the parasite are now. well known. It is a suckingworm less than an inch long and looking much like “a bit of soiled coarse thread.” One victim may entertain several thousand of these tiny "vampires, and these cause lobs of blood not only by sucking it, but by leakage through the minute holes that they make in th,e Intestinal walls. , Retardation of development due to hookworms has caused a great deal of unmerited criticism to be beaped on the Southern cotton mills. Lads of 17 or 18 t appear no older than normal boys of 10 or 11; boys of 10 or 11 sometimes look like ljttle children. Strangers not knowing their real ages and seeing them at work go away with lurid stories of the horrors of child labor. Their impression is still further heightened if they try to talk with the supposed children. The disease makes them dull and backward — ar ® generally the stupidest pupils in the schools—and they seem unable to answer the simplest questions intelligently. Perhaps they feel tpo miserable even to try. In school they are unable to concentrate their minds on anything, and the teachers in the hookworm districts say that if their pupils remain seated for any length of time they “swell up.” Hookworm disease is caused by tbe presence of small worms belonging to a group of round worms known technically as uclnarinae. Two different kinds of hookworm occur la man. One of these ip popularly known as the “Old World hookworm,2 the other as the "New World hookworm.” Both of these parasites are known to occur in Africa, the home of the negro, and both have been found in the negro. The Old World hookworm is ; relatively rare in the United States, where the great majority of cases mußt he attributed to the New World parasite. The New World hookworin Is. known as "the American murderer,” this name having been given It. on account of the great number of deaths It causes, directly or indirectly. The American hookworm Is about ,one-fourth to ode-half an lncll long and about as thick as a small hairpin. It has hard cutting plates or jaws guarding the entrance to its mouth, with the aid of which it to the intestinal wall. In its adult stage the hookworm is found .fastened to the lining membrane of the small ..intestine. Formerly it was . thought that the parasite secured its hold by means of hooks, but now It ig established that It fastens Itself byi biting the membrane. It makes a wound, sucks the blood and produces a poisonous substance which injures the person affected. A person may harbor a few hookworms, or several thousands, according to the amount of Infection to which he has been subjected; ''The disease is more common in children than in adults. The parasites do not multiply in the intestine, as their eggs require fresh air in order to develop, and so for every hookworm found' in the intestine a separate germ must enter the body. The young .vorm may enter the body in two different ways. It may be swallowed in contaminated water or it may bore its way through tbe Skin. Boring through the skin is the more common method of Infection. After entering the skin, the young worms make their way to the blood and pass with' the blood through the heart to the lungs, pradually they find their way to the small intestine, where they shed their skin, become mature and then begin .their work of injuring the walls of the intestines of suckling the blood, and of poisoning their victims. Investigations by. Dr. Stiles have convinced him that the hookworm disease has a serious effect upon the mind and prevents children from fully and -properly assimilating the education which is offered them. He says that, as nearly as can be estimated, the physical condition of the Southern school children In the rural districts is such that they cannot assimilate more than 70 per cent of the education they receive. -rs. Dr. Stiles 1s quoted as saying that it will twenty years, at a cost of SIOO,OOO a year—that is, $2,000,000—t0 stamp out the malady in the Southern Stataeß. Much, however, can he done in a short time. The Rockefeller commission has not yet adopted a program for its campaign against the disease, but it will probably take up the measures suggested'some time ago by Dr. Stiles, which include an annual “public health week” in the schools, when children will be taught the dangers of infection; house-to-house canvasses in the hack country districts by rna<n—i B t Q . dents on vacation to enlighten the natives, lectures by physicians and trained nurses in town halls, churches and schoolhouses; the distribution of pamphlets and other printed matter telling about the disease; an institution tor free diagnosis and treatment, and the passing of laws in ths several Southern States to permit the above measures and to promote the aatihookworm campaign. A late dispatch from San Francisco says that hundreds of cases of hookworm have been imported into California. In the last few years from Hawaii 'the Philippines and the Orient. Almost half of a colony pf West Indian laborers who had been working in the Hawaiian sugar plantations and came to the Pacific coaßt were Infected.