The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-09-19

/ is to eliminate the hOOk-WOrm anu
| teach these people sanitation.
The law makes special provision
| for saving hogs or cattle, but in this
case it happens to be men, women
| and children, and no provision has
been made for them. Congress has
| tened to appropriate an immense
| amount for the relief Of Southern
Italy when it suffered from cOsmic
! caprice, worthy appropriation. But
! the thing that will make the next
generation of poor Southern whites
a healthy, industrious people is much
more worthy. At the same time it
solves the labor problem, both agrt
cultural and industrial.
There will be no further need of
child work In the factories when the
efficiency Of the grown-uP is In
creased, nor will there be need of
italian and Greek colonization for
farm work.
1t is proposed now, to relieve the
labor problem, TO import labOrers
from Southern Europe. The South is
the only part Of the country which
has been free from this influence,
Labor from Northern Europe would
complicate the temperance question:
labor from Southern Europe would
cOmplicate the race question. II costs
$4,000 to bring one immigrant from
Europe That amount of money would
provide proper Out-houses for four
families and thus improve the health
Of from twenty to forty persons, and.
in addition, save the lives OF several.
Or IL would buy the drugs to cure
from sixty to one hundred who are
Ill Of the hook worm disease. The
increased energy, improved health and
increased native life would be worth
much more to the South than many
European immigrants.
Child Labor Problem.
Much has been said recently about
child labor. Some writer's have
strewn tears through the pages of
many magazines about the pity of the
child in Southern factories. It Is a
pity; but the child is not to blame,
neither are its afflicted parents. The
fault lies with the men who have
neglected to provide a law by which
the government might, with fifteen
cents worth of thymOl and a little
EPSON salts, remove the devastating
parasite which now absorbs the en-
ergy and vitality of the parents and
eventually gets into the blood of the
children. II Is a very extravagant
nation that does not properly con-
serve the children of the laboring
class in the South.
Dr.. Stiles has spent years inveS-
tigating the hook worm, living part
of the time in the homes of the poor
whites, among those pitifuIly afflicted
people called in various parts poor
Johns" poor buckra," crackers"
"sand-hilleTs,' tbaFrenites," "shad-
bellies" and dirt eaters
He estimates that one-third of the
rural tenant whites in the South are
so diseased. He is convinced, indeed
he has established the fact, that that
is the prime cause of the Incidence,
thriftlessness and lack of ambition Of
these people.
That is why the sunburn and dirt
on their faces do not hide their sal
low skin, why their eyes are dull with
yeliowish whites" why they move
slOthfully and tell the government
doctor, in labored drawl, that they
get aWfully tired when they work
Their strength has been Slapped by a
Vermtcular parasite, one about as big
as a piece Of thread and not half long
enough TO twis5 around a mans
finger; which rObs the body of its vi
tally and its protection against other
disease and makes the mind sluggish.
In popular phrase, this parasite is
the hook-worm. And what is as i'm
portant as the discovery is the mowl-
edge that all except those in the most
advanced stages of the disease can
be cured at a cost Of from fifteen to
seventy-f1ve cents each. All they
need is a few doses of thymol Tin
many cases one dose is sufficiently
and EPSON salts (Which should he
administered under personal super
vision OF a physician) and good strong
shoes; for the parasite comes from
polluted soil.
The Worm Is Ubiquitous.
The hook worm encircIes the globe
in the tropical and sub tropical beit,
diminishing in frequency in temper
ate climates, but occurring locally In
mines as far north as England, Hol-
land and Germany. In North Amer
lea the endemic infection stops at the
Potomac River. GeneriCally Identical
but specifically distinct infections oc-
cur in cats, dogs, foxes and various
other animals. The disease is more
common among persons who come
into direct contact with damp earth /
as farmers, tunnel diggers, miners
and all people who go barefooted, than
and those who wear shoes, because
the parasite, developing in unclean
soil, enters the body principally, al
most exclusively, through the skin |
Once in the body, ii reaches the cir !
CulatOTy system, passes with the |
blood through the heart to the lungs, |
from the lungs to the air passages, !
up to the larynx, down the oesOpnagIs /
to the stomach, and then to the small 4
where the eggs are owl /