Goldsboro semi-weekly argus., 1909-11-20
PUBLIC INTERESTED
Discovery of the Hook
Worm by DR.. c. ". -: ~
Stiles.
It's Cure Will Restore Whole Class
of People to Wealth and Indus
trial Efficiency and a New
TooSa ON life
Lease on Life.


Lease on Life.
At the Pan-American Sanitary Con-
gress of 1902, DR.. Charles Warden
Stiles, chief of the division OF zool-
ogy of the United States Public Health
and Marine Hospital Service, an
ncunced his discovery of human
PARASITE new to America, called the
iookworm. To this insignificant or
ganism, hardly half an inch1 long ana
no bigger round than ordinary hair
p1ns, he attributed the '1aziness OF
4t,e poor people of the South. The
next morning the public learned
through the newspapers that tine
germ of laziness' had been d1scoVered.
The phrase laid instant hold upon the
popular fancy. Other newspapers,
magazines, journals, etc., took it up
It was banded back and forth IN con-
xersation. Altogether it was the sea-
sons most popular joke.
But to DR.. Stiles the matter was no
joke. Fresh as he was from the
Southern tour of research that had
resulted in his discovery, he carried
constantly before his eyes vision o.
the gaunt, hollow-eyed people OF the
sandy barrens and pine woods. The
picture was anything but humorous.
On the contrary, it showed him
wrecks of men struggling despite an
overwhelming physical weakness TO
wrest a livelihood for their families
out of the soil, emaciated mothers and
girls with the bodies of little chill
dren, and hundreds of chlldren's
graves. For nearly three months he
i ad studied these people under every
condition. Starting from Washington
and travelling down through the South
to Florida, he had visited them in
their homes, examined them in hos
pitfalls and asy1ums; and watched them
at work on their farms, and in cotton
mills-and, as he observed them, the
conviction was borne in upon him that
during all these years they had been
staggering under a gigantic wrong.
He began to see that these people,
the lazy, the worthless-had for gen
erations been carrying on truly he
roic struggle against an enemy that
must have conquered a race of ath-
letes. This enemy was the hookworm.
To this insidious foe he was able to
trace most of the traits that exposed
the sufferers from disease to scorn
and aversion of their neighbors. This
=zorthlessness and stupidity were due
to the fact that the 1ife-giving fluid
which alone could give working power
to their hands or brains was being
drained from them night and day by
this small but deadly organism, now
known to science as necator America
nus, which means American murderer
In ascribing the condition OF the
sllftless class to disease rather thar
to defects of character, people in al
sections seemed to think that DR.
stiles was denying moral responsible
ity while the people of the South tool
the matter as an assault upon South
crn prosperity. One of the lead1na
Southern dailies printed an editorla
which said: 'EWe have known the poo
whites for generations, and no one ha
ever explained their condition salts
factorily. Here is man who claim
that he has found the cause of thei
worthlessness and inef6c1ency. Nov
il ali fairness, do not let us go OF
the handle, as some of our esteeme
CONTEMPORARIES have done, but let u
hear him out. Perhaps he is an Ana
Mas. Perhaps he is fool. But pei
haps he is neither Is is just poss1bl
that he knows what he is talkin
sbout. In justice to the poor white
let US go and hear him.
Through the efforts of DR.. Stile
largely by means of lectures deli
cred during his vacation without pa
snd often at his own expense, the al
ministrators of public health in tt
South have at last been stirred to a.
ton.
Today there is not a board of heals
in the Southern states that is not d
Ing something to combat the diseas
but as yet none is doing enough.
II the situation is met; a systemat
campaign-of much the character
that which is producing such exec
lert results in the war against tube
culosis must be organized and vigo
ously prosecuted. Through syste1
atic campaign along these lines. |
stiles declares that the hookworm d
ease can be stamped out OF the Sou
in twenty years. Thousands of d.
lars have been spent for the tra1
ncrtation of foreign labor, while wit
in her own boundaries the South
native population large enough
do her own work-if only the ch