The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-11
M CIvIEC ND HE HOOK-WORM

last Tuesday night at the College
of AgricuIture and Mechanic Arts, DIT
c. ". STYLES gave an illustrated lecture
on the hook-worm disease which ne
believes is responsible for most OF the
sickness in sandy sections OF the couh-
try. and on Wednesday he delivered an
address on the same subject TO the
Federation of Woman's Clubs. d.
STYLES firmly believes this devastating
disease can be eradicated by simple
and inexpensive methods. For years
the people and the doctors believed
that pale faces and emaciatlon seen
among some of the poorest people IN
the South was due to malaria, and III
exceptional cases to ''dirt-eating.' DE-.
Styles believes it is chiefly due to a hu-
man parasite new to America, called
the hoOk-worm. To this ~"hook-Worn
he attributed the so-calied laZiness OF
people and he was troubled because
for generations they had been strug-
Cling under a gigantic wrong. In
stead of being lazy worthless II
'goOd-for-nothing,' DR.. Styles ound
that these people had been carrying
for generations a truly heroic struggle
against an enemy that must have con
Quered a race Of athletes"
In the current numbe of Worlds
Work, Miss Frances Maule B~jOrElnan
writes OF Thu CURE FOR TWO
MILLION SICK. the dis, osery Of the
hOOk-Worm disease by Dr.. {. W. Styles.
Its Cure will Restore a Whole Class OF
People 20 Health II Industrial Elf
CieBCy." She tells with absorbing in
the division OF Zoology of the United
States Public Health and Marine Hos
pital service had announced his dis
OF a human parasite. new u
America, called the h~ook-Worm. To
this insignificant organism, hardly
han on ordinary hairpin, he attributed
the "laziness Of these poor people OF
the South She goes on to tell how
he spent months in a Southern town
living with people who supposed they
We're afflicted with "pernicious ma
l~aria," who were. in fact. as he &C.
clared, suffering from -'hook-vorm."
a disease which he calls the vampire
of the South. but which ear be cured
the use of q few cents worth Of
salts and thymol. and can be
eradicated by the use OF priries that
are sanitary. The remedy is so easy
to procure and he method of prevent
i've ca Sinorjx that IaoJ3I 81 -. !
over the South are urging that they !
be adopted.
Continuing the interesting article.
Miss ~Bjorkman says:
Having in mind the fact that in the
old World the disease was most COM
among persons working in damp
which reason it is knoun
oqula as 'brlck-maker's
anaemia,' miners anaemia," tunnel ,
etc.-he first turned his at
tentlon to the brickmakerS AID miners
of Virginia and the Carolinas. Amor
these people he found evidence of Tic
ulsease, but nothing TO demonstrate
that it was of wide prevalence.
One night. after a disheartening day
spent in vainly trying to make scfen-
tlflc among people, mostly
who regarded him as q
Voodoo Doctor and who finally
warned nm away from the place. he
returned to his hotel profoundly dis
Could it be. he asked himself, that
he had been mistaken in his Theory.
after all?
He lay awake nearly all night re-
viewing all he knew about hookworm
disease. Suddenly he turned up this
apparently insignificant ct-nearly
all the infected animals he had exam
ne0 n90 come from u cOI1nfCk- WIFI, n
soil This was the clue he had
been looking for. The next morning,
n Of the local physicians. he
started for the sandhillS.
They stopped at the first farm they
'aIne to, ana, going into the house, en-
into conversation with the pro-
crietor-a Wretched being, who looked
more dead than alive.