The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-11-05
Jack Johnson
WHAT THE "AOOKWORM" IS
Nature of the Hairlike Parasite Rock
efeIIer Helps Fight.

The "hookworm," to fight which
John ID. Rockefeller has just pledged
81 900 900, is a hairlke parasite to
which is charged a form of anemia
prevalent especially among the poor
people of the south. 1t was not until
recent years that members of the med
zeal profession recognized that para
site caused the malady.
In December, 1902 DR. Charles War
dell Stiles. then zo-ologist in the bu-
reau of animal industry at Washing
ton, who had been studying intestinal
parasites, announced to the Pan-Amer-
lean Sanitary congress his conviction
that the so-called "la2iness" and shift
lessness" widely observed in certain
portions of the south was specific
disease due to the "hOokwOrm." Many
members of the congress expressed
surprise at the announcement, and up
to the present the disease has been a
matter of some controversy.
DR.. Stiles found his first case for
personal investigation in a Washing
ton hospital in 1902 He became con
WINGED that the "hookworm" was the
parasite that was causing much of the
anemia and its resulting lassitude in
the south, bui waited six years before
he found his second case. This mar
was q sailor and attributed his run
down condition to the fact that he had
been compelled to drink water which
in sixty-ive days had killed 1878 i'm
ported Russian peasant laborers. Two
hundred "hookworms" were found in
this man, and his case resulted in the
discovery also of more reliable dag
nosis for the disease.
From what is known now of the
hookworm it seems that this parasite
although less than half an inch il
length, operates on the intestines of its
victims in such a way as to sap his
vitality without giving any definite
indication of its presence until it,
ravages have gone too far to bt
checked The hookworm resembles ;
bit of soiled coarse thread, but it hai
a complete and well developed set o
organs - mouth, esophagus, intestine
canal, and various glands. The female
has a capacity for laying many thou
sands of eggs.
The mouth of the hookworm Is cul
shaped 1t is bordered by a flattened
flange-like rim that can be squeezed
up snugly against the intestine of it
victim during feeding. This gives tn,
worm a sort of purchase which make
of its strong, we'll muscled esophagu
a sort of suction pump. The mouth i
equipped with two pairs of lancini
teeth and at the rim Is a fang SHAPED
like a sharp dagger. This has a lon
gland at its base.
When the hookworm Is ready to ca
it sucks a bit of the intestine of it
victim into its mouth, lances them wit
its teeth and fang and starts suckin
the blood. Eventually a colony of
few dozen hookworms working in on
mans intestines will literally eat hir
up.
The hookworm females eggs mus
be Matched in the open air and tn
larvae, in the second stage of thei
development, regain an entrance to tn
human body by boring through tn
skin into the cutaneous veins, up I
the hearts, thence to the lungs, an
finally to the digestive tract. Whe
the disease is suspected it Is easy {
treatment and 1t Is hoped that tn
work of exterminating the larvae wi
be carried to as successful a concl
sion as attended the efforts to wiz
out the yellow fever bearing mosquit
II this can be accomplished the di
ease will be wiped out In few year
according to scientists.