Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-20
Cootie-Curers
By Frederic ]. Haskin

| cootic remedies now being perfected
in this country, promises to overcome
one of the most persistent and dangerous
enemies of the American Expeditionary
Forces-to witt, the cootic.
| "Cootie," il must be explained, is
soldier slang and now an almost universal
| term for tho human lo,lse, known 10
science as pcdicuIus humanus. Hereto
fore he has not required q popular name
he has not been popular. Society has
agreed not to mention him. But the
cootic has forced himself into a position
| OF national and international prominence
BY carrying typhus, he killed of
about third Of the Serbian army, and
| decimated the Russian, Roumanian and
| Austrian ranks. On the western front
| he has not caused much trouble with
| typhus but he ia the sole carrier of trench
| fever, which disables more men than
any other disease. And he ~ further
| personal past Of the first magnitude,
| especially to Americans, who are used
| to being clean Some Of them have
been driven almost crazy by the mere
sensation of having oootIes upon their
| hitherto wel-tubbed and immaculate
| persons.
ONE OF wars HORRORS.
So the eootie is a real horror of war. He
must be studied, talked about and
| understood to the end that he may be
overcome as an enemy pest. That is
| why an attractive name has been gwen
| him. he has broken into the newspapers
and even the movies "Coo'fe-curers"
| is n term which the scientists and in
| vestigators now campcd upon his trail
| have facetiously bestowed upon them
selves.
II ia not in any spirit of prudery that
| the louise has been given new name,
either. II was literally necessary. For
| so long and SO persistently has the iouse
| plagued the human race that the mere
| mention Of his name causes shivers and
| itching sensations TO even the most
| stoIid of persons. Fair stenographers
in the Bureau Of Entomology have
| resolutely refused 10 write the word,
and in the present state of the stenog-
rapher supply. tha alone ls reason
| for giving the creature new name.
DR.. w. Dwight Pierce Of the same
Bureau, who under Or j. @ Howard's
| direction. is the leader in the campaign
| against General Cootie, admits that
| when he was writing a lecture on disc ases
| conveyed bv the louise, he was afflicted
with lfchings and twitchings that ser
| iousIy hindered his efforts AS part
/ Of the campaign n moving picture was
made showing immensely magnihed COO
/ tics crawling around, biting people.
| LAYING their eggs and raising their fam
| lies in the seams Of military breechcs.
| Ten or twenty men who saw this film
made for several days were scratching
and wrigging in a profound convlctloa
| that there were cooties all over them.
| Really there was not one in the crowd.
HAS Us BLUFYgD STATIONARY.
| The point il that the cootie has the
| human race bluffed To n standstill. The
/ mere mention of his name produces
| thrill Of horror To think of hun wander
| ing over ones anatomy, laden with
| disease and filth, is TO shudder.
Il venture to say that twenty per
| cent of the persons who read your art
| lele will experience itching sensations.
remarked DR.. Pierce How about it?
Men who would face a tiger will run
/ from coOtle. And indeed, the cootie
is far more dangerous TO humans than
| the tiger, and annually takes more lives.
| All Of the most deadly enemies OF man
| kind are insects.
| Despite the cootle s successful use
of terrorism. it is possible to get used
10 him In fact, repellant as the thought
NAV be, it is doubtless natural to harbor
| him. for he is a natural parasite OF the
| human body and can live nowhere else
! He Is found everywhere IN the world
that man is found. He belongs 70 a
! distinctive order of insects, which re-
sembles noother. There IS special bra
| of cootie for nearly every warm blooded
creature that walks the earth.
Men who have long been infested by
| these vermn literally forget all about
them They are apparently immune
TO the poison and irritation of the crea-
!! ture But they are not immune TO the
| diseases it carries. These include several
| varieties OF fever-typhus fever, trench
| fever, Volhynian or fve-day fever, and
| several forms of relapsing fever. These
constitute the cootie's complete line OF
/ goods" and none of them are conveyed
/ in any other way.
INFECTs THRo Ugh HIS BITE.
| How the cootie carries fever infection
has been only recently discovered. he
| does not infect his victim by means
of his bite. He does draw the poison
| from the sick man in that way, however.
| Then, as the fever patients temperature
rises, the cooties all leave him, for much
| the same reason that barefoot boy
gets off hot pavement. They seek
a healthy man The fever germs are
deposited on his skin by the cooties
in the form of excretions. The man,
in scratching himself. abrades the skin
and inoculates the infection into the
| blood
This fact that oooties viii at once
| leave man who has a fever has led
to widespread belief among ignorant
folk that it is a sign of health TO harbor
coolies, and this superstition has done
much to win them a welcome and q
happy home which they by no means
deserved.
Certain religious sects iii the Orient
are forbidden to kill insects, and these
peoples constitute another cootie strong
hold. In the streets of Cairo, mothers
may be seen Furnishing their children
for scratching and otherwise defending
themselves against the ravages of the
vermin. 1t is thought that the head
shaving of the ancient Egyptian priests
was a peaceful means of keeping them
selves free of the head louise, which
requires hair TO live in.
Armies always are and always have
been plagued by cooties. There are
always some infested individuals IN
the ranks, and in the crowded condi-
tions of trench and camp, these quickly
supply breeding stock TO all Others,
| while the absence of bathing and laundry
| facilities prevents the soldier from riddng
| himself of the pests.
| This is probably the FIRST war IN which
a serious effort has been made to
q A4FF