Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-10-23

from that time forward numerous writer's have
described the SYMPTOMS of this disease without
approaching or understanding It's cause AS
we have mentioned Dubini undoubtedly deserves
the credit of first associating Miners Anaemla
or Tunnel disease with the presence of para
site worm One of the many troubles which
has for more years than one cares to recall,
vexed the economist Of the southern part Oh
the United States is the existence OF a large
population of degraded white people, sometimes
referred to by the black citizens as POOR mean
whites" or Poor white trash" About the be-
ginning of the present century Professor Stiles
of WASHINGTON was able to show that the de-
plorabIe condition Of this degenerate people
was due not so much to original sin as TO the
fact that they were infested by worm Whlch
was thought to be identical with the Ancylos-
toma doudenale we have described above But
ion wears AGO Stiles found out that the worm,
although its effects were identical with the An
cyIostoma was Of a different species and even
genus and this he named Necator amerlcanus
It was for some years thought that this n
americanus was peculiar to America, and the
uninformed labeled it the "Germ-ofidleness.
ScbooImasters and college presidents looked for
ward to virus weakened under cultivation until
inoculation would confer immunity to laziness
on schoolboys and college students A little
later some pigmies from the Semlih Forest
who were brought by some enterprising impre-
sario for exhibition in musichalls passed down
the Nile and on reaching Cairo were inspected
by Loos3, who discovered in them Necator amerl-
canus Probably this was introduced some cen
turtles ago into America from Africa with the
slaves and is part of the debt the New World
has had to pay for the institution of slavery.
Since then Leiper has shown that Necator
americanus is almost as widely distributed in
the Old World as in the New.
There are many details about the tunnel worm
which are i'll adapted for newspaper discussion;
but one may at least point out that, with proper
provision, it may be controlled. To d great ex-
tent it is controlled in the Panama canal region
and other districts by the American sanitary
officials. To take but example. In Porto
Rico the deaths caused by Ancylostomiasis were
placed at 80 per cent. OF the local death rate;
but by assiduous and most careful treatment
the authorities in that island managed to cure
% per cent of the inhabitants and practically
cured another 175 per cent, while 40 per cent.
of their patients were still under treatment at
the time Of writing. The remaining 16h per
cent. ceased to return, and only o. per cent.
died This admirable work was effected without
any great cost.
The triumph Of the Americans In making the
Canal zone" a health resort is summed up
by Mr.. James Bryce, late British ambassador at
Washington, in these words: Its success in es-
Gaping all charges of partially corruption, as
we'll as in producing efficiency in the work and
contentment among the workers, has indeed been
such as to make some persons draw from it an
argument in favor Of state control Of all great
enterprises To the unbiased observer 1t is rath.
er an instance of the efficiency Obtainabe by
vesting full administrative control in men whose
uprightness and capacity have already been
proved beyond question, who have not risen by
political methods and who have nothing to gain
by any misuse of their powers. So far any
political moral can be drawn from the case, that
moral recommends not democratic conectiVism
but military autocracy."