Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-03-30
MANS TROPICAL FOE.
THE HooKWoRM DISEASE A
WORLD WIDE scoURGE.

of Prevention.
Hookworm disase has been brought
into prominent notice in the United
States during the last few years ow-
ing to the discovery that much of the
sickness and some of the adverse
economic conditions of warm regions
tence.
Up to 1898 no authentic case of the
disease was recognized as such in the
United States, declares the New York
Sun. In 1902 DR.. Charles Wardell
Stiles of the Public Health and Ma
rine Hospital Service showed that
distinct hookworm, which was named
Uncinaria Americana, infests man in
dis country.
The anaemia so prevalent in semi
tropical districts and so facilitating to
= large number of inhabitants is said
to be almost entirely due to hookworm
disease. According to Stiles, dis
tricts situated on clay soil and cities
are not favorable to the development
of the malady, but in the agricultural
regions in which the soil is sandy in
lection takes place readily.
The anaemia is caused by leech-
like, blood sucking parasite which in
fects the small intestine. Sandwich
of Cairo, Egypt, believes that the
ancient Egyptians suffered from this
! form of anaemia, as a number of ref
erences tallying with the modern
descriptions of the affection are found
in ancient writings.
Within modern times this particular
kind of anaemia was described in
Brazil by Piso in 1913; Labat, in 1742
7 or 1745 observed it In Guadeloupe,
Chevalier in 1862 in Santo Domingo,
Dazzle and Bason in 1776 in the An
TILES and Edwards in 1790-1793 in
Jamaica.
In Europe the disease was first noted
among the miners of Auzin, France, in
1902. The parasite, however, was not
discovered until 184S, by Dublin of
Milan. Griesinger in 1854 first show
ed the true relation of the parasitical
disease to anaemia.
The worm causing the malady is,
says Stiles, somewhat different in Eu-
rope and in the Old World generally,
from that of this continent 1t is
known in Europe as the Ankylostomi-
UNI duodenale and here as the I'm
cinaria Americana.
/, 1t has a remarkably wide distribu-
ton, being found in almost all trOpi-
cal and sub-tropical regions, and in
In Great Britain the parasite was
unknown until recently.
In 1902 there was a serious outbreak
of embellishments in Cornish mines
In France it exists in the mining dis
tricts. In Belgium and Germany it
prevails largely among the same class.
Among miners working in the coal
mines of Hungary the affection is
common. In Italy the disease has
been observed on an extended scale,
especially in the provinces of Milan
and Pavia in Lombardy.
In the Far East the malady is pres
ent almost everywhere. 1t is exceed
ingly common. throughout the Indian
Peninsula and Ceylon. Dobson,
Rogers and others have shown that in
Assam, Bengal, and some other parts
of India from 60 to 70 percent of the
population harbor the parasite.
1t is believed that in some of the
hospitals of Ceylon the majority of
cases of dysentery and debility that
come under treatment are due to this
parasite. DR.. Thomhill of Ceylon
states that the more he reflects on
his own experience and the more he
reads of the experience of others, the
that the hookworm is the greatest
enemy of the human race in the
tropics
In Burmah the worm is widely prev
alent, and 1t has a wide distribution
In the East Indian Islands 1t has also
been found in Cochin China, in French
Indo-China and in Japan; in fact, in
some parts of China it is very COM
mon.
Australia contains many sufferers
from the hookworm disease, while it
flourishes more or less in all parts of
Africa In Egypt the infection occurs
with great frequency, and on the west
coast of Africa, in the Belgian Congo,
in Mauritius and in South Africa it is
extremely prevalent.
In Central America the hookworm is
a scourge, and it is fairly common in
all parts of South America. There
are but a few of the West Indian
Islands in which the parasite is not
found, and in porto Rico it is the cause
of almost all the sickneses and pow
erty so widespread throughout that
island.
From the above account it will be
gathered that the hookworm disease
has a very extensive range, but that
it is found mainly in hot or warm
climates, while as cause Of perma-
nent endemic disease it is almost
wholly confined to tropical or sub
tropical countries, Italy being the only
country which is an exception to that
rule.
AS the manner in which infection
by the hookworm takes place, there
is by no means unanimity of opinion
among medical men. Clemow, a great
authority, says: 1.-THE development OF
the oya takes place in muddy water
mud or damp earth. while for the final
stage, and in order they may again
become sexually mature worms, they
must enter the tissues of human be
ing. This probably takes place by
means of foul drinking water. or, per
haps more commonly by being trans
ferred in the act of eating from earth.
soiled hands to the mouth. or by a
| direct penetration of the skin Hence
it is most common to find the affection
in persons who work in the earth"
All are agreed that the disease is
essentially one of the soil. but it is
not now believed drinking water, how