The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-07-21

interest. His work at Suvs
has been monumental" So wrote
DR.. Victor Heiser, author OF "Ap
American Doctors Odyssey
DR.. Lambert has now written
the book, a record of owe twenty
years Of preventing disease IN the
South Seas from Tahiti right
across to Papua and New Guinea.
1t is called "a Yankee Doctor in
Paradise" little, Brown and
Company, publishers).
Through his efforts as repre-
sentative of the Rockefeller Foun-
dation, the scourges Of the islands,
particularly hookworm and yaws,
were brought under control. !
will not spoil the reader by any
detailed account Of his many ad-
ventures but will content myself
with one or two samples.
Native Witch Doctors
Everywhere that Dr.. Lambert
tried to introduce scientific meth
DDS Of treatment and prevention,
he found he was in competition
with the native witch doctors.
They were able to throw a curse,
q "draunikau."
Once a British vessel brought
two royal visitors to Fiji, the Duke
Of Clarence, heir to the throne,
and his younger brother. Prince
George, who later became King
George V. The natives seated
them at a banquet and prepared a
drink by the old method, to chew
the root of kava and spit the juice
into a bowl.
The Duke Of Clarence who had
seen the native saliva go into the
bowl. pushed the cup bearer aside.
Grim silence followed. George
took the shell and tossed of his
portion with gusto and then
reached down and spun his cup
across the mat-the highest COM
pliment. The witch doctor put q
"draunikau" on the Duke Of Clar-
ence and turning to George said,
you will be the king and a great
one." The Duke of Clarence died
withous~succeeding to the throne.
DR.. Lambert's speciality was the
wholesale treatment Of hookworm.
The drug he used was carbon
tetrachloride and he had some
amusing experiences.
Wiping Out Hookworm
THE history Of public health
can not be written by the sure-cure
patent-medicine man. We had our
bumps, at first, but they were
amazingly few. In every district
where there was a hookworm fire.
quency Of over sixty per cent, we
rounded the people up and gave
the treatment zen masse." In one
place we dosed 1,243, and came
back in a month to find LII vii
layers showing negative - about
the average sampleiof our work as
it increased TO large proportions.
Primitive folk made a carnival
of our coming; drums sounded and
they all reached out for the wizard
drops. They called it 'toddy' and
said it was fine because it made
them drunk. Possibly it did, a
little After a child's-size dose
small boys would run around like
wild dogs, tear up the flower beds
in mission compounds, throw mud
and have a perfectly bully time.
Full-grown 'marys' would caper
and dance like Aunt Dinah at an
old-fashioned revival; but when
their big buck husbands smacked
them, they would come back TO
normal with surprising alacrity."
But at any rate by 1880 hook
worm in the south Pacific did not
exist.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
S. WYNN there be any seri-
Gus after-efects on a woman who
continuously used cathartics (Ep-
som Salts, Agar-oil, and phenalph-
thalein tablets) almost daily for
fifteen years. but who has now
wised up and eats the correct foods
and now eliminates naturally"
Answer: No. Nature is very
forgiving in that respect and when
you have really wised up and come
TO the mourner's bench, the past is
forgotten and everything restored
TO normal.
Iay IN which he said exart.