Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-01-26
The Hook Worm.

Many have asked what the Hook
worm really is, what it looks like and
what causes it. DR.. Charles Wardell
Stiles, chief of division of Zoology,
United States Public Health and Mar
Inc Hospital Service, has made an ex-
haustive investigation and study of
this problem in the South; this seems
to be the natural location of the raw
ages of the Hook worm. DR.. Stiles
has established the fact that the indo-
lence ard shiftlessness of the negroes
and poor whites of the South is due
to the Hook worm disease. The Hook
worm is a vermicular parasite, one
about as big as piece of thread, and
not hardly long enough to twist
around a mans finger. It encircles
the globe in the tropical and sub-trop-
ical belt diminishing in frequency IN
temperate climates, but occurring +
mines as far north as England, E'o :
land and Germany. In North Amer
lea the endemic infection stops at the
Potomac River. Chemically identi-
cal but specifically distinct infec-
tions occur in cats, dogs, foxes and
various other animals.
the disease is more common among
persons who come into direct contact
diggers, miners and all people who
go barefooted, than among persons of
other occupations and those who wear
shoes. because the parasite, develop
ing in unclean soil, enters the body
principally, almost exclusively,
through the skin. Once in the BODY
it reaches the circulatory system,
passes with the blood through the
heart to the lungs, from the lungs to
the air passages, up to the larnyx.
down the aesophagus to the stomach
and then to the small intestines,
where the eggs are ovipUsited; but
the eggs do not develop until they
leave the body.
Anaemia is the first effect. The
skin changes to watery white or
dirty yellow, tallow or tan (the color
being a general superficial indication
of tie degree of the anaemia) ; it be-
comes parchment like, perspiration
being more or less suppressed, in
chronic cases the skin is atrophied.
The patients face usually shows
an anxious, stupid expression the
eyes stare blankly, the pupils are di-
lat I'D, occasionally there is night blind
ness. In the neck cervical pulsation
especially in severe cases, is very
evident; sometimes this can be seen
twelve feet from the patient. There
is a tendency to the development of
abnormal appetites for sour things,
as lemons, pickle or buttermilk, or
a perverted appetite for mud, Sand,
gravel, clay, chalk, etc.
The effect upon the mind of such
infections is quickly apparent. Inter
est in affairs, even the commonest
wanes.
We have given q brief account of
the prime cause for the condition of
so large a percentage of the popula-
tion of the warmer sections of the
globe, aud DR.. Stiles has found a
sure and cheap remedy in Thymol and
salts, and if the disease is not too
far advanced it can be cured with
fifteen cents'worth of these remedies,
and it's for the stamping out of this
dread maDady that John d. Roekefel-
Ter has given 81, 900. 900. and DR.. Stiles
is to be warden of it's distribution.
Imagine what is in store for the
Southern states when the Hook worm
is stamped out and the methods of
preve ntSon are doing their work. 1t
is one of the most important discov-
cries of the century and DE-. Stiles
has won in a hard fought scientific
campaign of investigation, he is lift
ing portion of the under world.