Arizona republican., 1904-12-20
A Terrible Worm.

The announcement is made from Washington that Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles. chief of the geological labor atory of the United States public health and hospital service. has identi- fled the parasite called the hook worm as the cause of laziness.
 While the process which led to the segregation of the hook worm from the multitude of more or less minute enc mics of mankind is interesting, the fact itself cannot fail to be momentous Tn Its effects. It not inl7requently hap pens that knowledge of the true mis- sion and mode of attack of these min ute organisms and full realization of their baleful effects is quickly fol- lowed by the discovery of means for their extermination. SD long as it's vicious character was unknown. the hook worm lived out it. brief term of existence and did after its kind. When, however. the scientists discovered that it was the long sought for cause o. indolence it's days were presumably numbered.
 The hook worm. according to the re- port of it's scientific investigator, seems hitherto to have chiefly thrivet in the southern states. and it is aI leged 10 have committed most of it's depredations among the mountain dwellers or poor whites of Georgia It has, however been traced to different portions of the black belt, and to its effects is now attributed the indoIence Of the blacks as a class.
 It seems. however, according to Dr. Stiles. that this ruthless enemy of ac- tivity has enlarged it's field of useful fulness. and specimens have been dis covered "at Buffalo. at N1iddletown, Conn.,. and in one or two of the mining towns of Pennsylvania" This emi- nent and official scientist, if he had pursued his investigations in this di- rection. might have found an exten- sive culture of the hook worm in Phoenix.
 Criticism of investigations made by scientific experts employed by the gov ernment are very common. and the critics are not subject to charges of Iese majeste. Otherwise The Repub- Iican, on account of it's observations regarding the accuracy of the weather bureau prognostications, would have been in jail the greater part of the time.
 But regarding the scientific expert ments carried on more or less scien- tifically, to many persons the expense taI hTr ioa1 suits In the case of the hook worm, however, it would seem that the dis covery of its malignant character fully warrants the outlay of time and money involved. Aside from the pos sible discovery of destructive para site which will check the further ad- vance of the plague at least, there is a satisfaction in arriving at the true cause of indolence. It is no longer a mystery why it takes a messenger boy half day to deliver a message within a radius of half a mile. Nor should he be subjected to blame when the censure is really due to the vicious hook worm.
 Weary Willies." who are supposed  dolence. should, Tn the light of this great discovery. be regarded as victims of the scourge of the hook worm, rath- CT than voluntary abstainers from all forms of useful occupation. The an nouncement that the hook worm was known to the ancients and is now con sidered the real cause of indoIence since the time of the Pharaohs does not minimize the importance of the discovery. It is never too late to trace cut and counteract malignant causes.
 IL is perhaps fortunate that the hook worm is large enough to outclass the plain. ordinary and sometimes micro scopic bacillus, and is thus more cas- fly amenable to capture. Whether an anti-toxin will be discovered which will make a person immune to the at tacks of the dread parasite is yet to be determined. If so. the further In- cursion of the pest into the northern and more active part of the country may be prevented.
 
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