Arizona republican., 1909-10-31

the attention of the country has been directed to the ravages of the hook worm among the people of the south ern states Physicians in the service of the federal government were the first to announce that they had dis covered the cause of the proverbial laziness of the poor whites" of the south, and that this laziness is dis ease-suffering from the hookworm- Later researches have shown that the victims of the hookworm are not con- fined to the poor classes. however. Only the other day an examination of the students at the University of Alabama disclosed that a majority of them were afflicted. It is now esti- mated that there are 2.000,000 vic tins of the hookworm in this coun- try. most of them being in the south
 ern states.
 Dr. Charles Warden Stiles of the public health and marine hospital
 service is the man most familiar with the mysterious hookworm disease. and
 to him. probably, belongs the credit
 of its discovery. According to him.
 the disease is prevalent among the children of the rural districts and among the poorer classes generally of the south He asserts that the dis
 ease attacks both body and mind. and that humanity cannot long avoid
 degeneration if the progress of the
 disease is not checked. One of the reasons for the spread of the disease, according to Dr. Stiles. is the lack of sanitary conditions in the country in fested, together with the habit of children going barefooted-their feet taking up the worms with filth. School houses and churches. and all
 places where people gather. are breed ing places of the parasite, and once it attaches itself to the person it is hard matter to get rid of it. The
 real negro problem of the south" says
 Dr. Stiles, ''is the hookworm. The negro is the real scatterer of the para
 site, and he disseminates it wherever
 he goes. The white people are the sufferers, particularly the tenant
 whites, who, through ignorance and lack of protection which pecuniary
 means afford are unable to escape
 the destructive infection"
 The hookworm is a parasite which
 may be roughly described as about
 the thickness of hair and the length of pin. It is plainly visible without the aid of a microscope. Doctors be-
 lieve it was imported into this coun- try by slaves from Africa. The worm fastens itself to the walls of the in testines. There it becomes vam- pirs, living upon the blood which it draws from the delicate membrane
 which it punctures. One end of it.
 the hook end-holds it so fast that considerable force is needed for it's dislodgement Sometimes hundreds of these worms afflict a victim. In one autopsy more than 500 were found. Not only do they draw away the life giv- | ing blood, but they fill the intestinal
 walls so full of holes that their func- tions are interfered with. And they
 withdraw so much blood that the vic
 tim's mind and body are alike af- fected. A constant gnawing feeling is one of the symptoms-a feeling which leads the sufferer to eat clay and
 other things not comprised in the or
 dinary diet.
 Dr. Stiles believes that if the hook
 worm is eliminated, the labor question
 of the south will be solved. He thinks | the situation cannot be exaggerated.
 He predicts that it will take twenty
 years to conquer the disease. He has found, however, that the remedy in
 any given case is simple-doses of | epson salts, combined with one or [ two other simple ingredients, admin istered regularly through a course of
 few weeks, eradicate the worms. The practical mind of MT. Rockefel- | Ter having taken hold of the problem | the doctors in the south should soon begin to gain the upper hand sf the
 parasite.