Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-06
Geographic News
Bulletins BY the
National Geographic Society
THE HOOKWORM

thO
world struggle, a~-beneficent war
the val against disease" says a bull
letin from the Washington, d. c.,
| headquarters of the National Geo
graphic Society based on a commu-
nication to The Society from Will
liam Joseph Showalter.
! in all the stirring history of
mans effort to make himself mas
ter of his enivro nment, there Is no
more thrilling chapter than that
which tells of the bitter battles he
has waged for the conquest of con-
tagion, and of the ground he has
less and ~innumerable, though invis-
ible foes" say the bulletin.
Three News Items
Three ncements OF almost
unprecedented import to mankind
are expected to be made at no dis
tant date.
1.-THE first of these, chronological
ly, at least, will be that yellow fever
has at last been banished from the
face of the earth, and that the germ
which causes it has become extinct,
along with the dinosaur, the dodo,
the great aux, and the passenger
pigeon.
THE next in order will probably
be that hookworm disease, which
has been called a handmaiden of
poverty, an associate of crime and
! degeneracy, a destroyer of. energy
and vitality, a and an OBJ
stacle to all that makes for civili-
cation" and which is endemic in a
zone that embraces half of the
earth's population, can be driven
from any community which has the
| will to get rid of it.
Last will come the statement
thte large-scale demonstrations have
proved hat malaria can be eradicat-
ed from almost and community that
has enough vital force left to push
a thorough, though inexpensive,
campaign for its extirpation.
Virginia Early Campaign Center
Richmond County, Virginia,
where the war on the hookworm as
a worldwide fight had it's inception
stands out as an example of what
may be accomplished and as an evil
dence that it Ia be accomplished
with much less difficulty than was
formerly supposed.
when the work began there,
about thirteen years ago, SO per
cent Of the people had the disease.
A few years later a resurvey showed
| that this had been reduced to 35 per
cent. A more recent resurvey redue.
ed it to 2 per cent, and in 1922 it
can be announced that there is not
| n single person in the entire county
in whose body the worms are num-
erous enough to produce any of the
symptoms of the malady.
There are two kinds of hook
worms that invade the human body
an Old World species known as An
cylostoma duodenale and the New
World form known as Necator am
ericanus.
The New World Species
1.-THE New World species of hook
worm is a small parasitic creature
about as thick as an ordinary pin
and half as long. TIE adult female
worm, inhabiting the small intestine,
lays thousands Of eggs daily. After
these pass out of the body they
hatch within one or two days. They
are microscopic in size when hatch
ed and never grow larger as long as
they remain in the ground.
Then comes along a pair of bare
feet or hands, or some other part of
the body touches, the infected
ground, and the little villains make
the most of their opportunity. They
promptly begin to bore their way
through the skin, causing a eve
irritation known as ground Itch
Once under the skin, they travel
through the tissues until they come
to the Emphatic system, and thence
into the blood.
Finally, after passing through the
heart and lungs, they reach the
Z II t-1nk "a - SC kIr>tr1 tho 80 -
ach, ultimately landing in the small
intestine, to whose wall they fasten
themselves, and for as much as
eve years. if not disturbed by
treatment, take their fill of the vic
TINS blood and intestinal tissue.
"They develop in their salivary
glands a substance that has a mark
ed power of inhibiting coagulation
of the blood. Attaching themselves
to the surface of the intestinal wall,
rasping and sucking away the deli
cate inner cells on which they feed.
they lay bare the deeper tissues, and
the wound continues to bleed for a
long time, even after the worm has
deserted the spot to which it was at
tached.
But they go even further than
that. BY some method not well I'M
dCI oIoOoy IiiOy SoooO Nv piOOo ~ Ill
dergo a change, reducing the
amount of hemoglobin-the element
that makes us red-blooded, and
which constitutes the ingredient that
tends to render healthy blood an un-
fertile soil for the seeds of infection
sown there through lack of santa
ton. 1t has been found that in Sc
we're cases of hookworm infection as
much as 80 per cent of the red
coloring matter of the blood is des-
troyed, and that the number Of red
corpuscles-the hod carriers of the
human system-may be cut down SO
per cent.
yet, owing to the fact that its
every stage is so well known that
the methods of combating 1t are 80
dramatically effective, and that
those who are cured so quickly be-
gin to experience the joys of living
once more, it makes itself the most
readily and successfully used of all
diseases with which to point a COM
munity toward a goal Of better
health"