442 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



on an extensive campaign against hookworm disease in the 

 Southern States of North America and elsewhere, and 

 against malaria and yellow fever in an international manner. 

 Not only do these campaigns diminish the diseases against 

 which they are directed and so are of great humanitarian 

 and economic value, but by their educational influence in 

 inculcating sound principles of sanitation, for example in 

 hookworm disease the erection of latrines and the disposal 

 of excreta, lead to improved health and a decrease in the 

 incidence of other diseases, such as typhoid fever and 

 dysentery. Hookworm disease occurs in agricultural laborers, 

 the parasite gaining its entrance through the unbroken skin; 

 it can be prevented by wearing shoes, even when the soil is 

 heavily contaminated by fecal polkition; the' infected 

 individuals can be cured by the oral administration of new 

 drugs, such as chenopodium, carbon tetrachloride, and 

 ascidol. 



ORTHODOX AND IRREGULAR MEDICINE 



One of the duties of the British Minister of Health, as 

 defined by the Ministry of Health Act 19 19, is "the avoidance 

 of fraud in connection with alleged remedies;" this cautiously 

 worded sentence brings up for consideration the relation of 

 orthodox medicine and the medical man to quackery and 

 their obHgation to protect the public from exploitation by 

 irregular practitioners out purely for gain at the expense of 

 the patient regardless of any harm which he may suffer. The 

 problem is delicate, for a new method employed by a man 

 without any qualification to practise and little knowledge of 

 medicine may be good in virtue of special knowledge, 

 experience, or manipulative skill in one direction; and on the 

 other hand quackery may be practised by a graduate in 

 medicine. Individually medical men can and do protect 

 their patients against fraudulent methods of treatment, but 

 concerted action has not been general. In North America, 

 where cults of medicine, such as Christian Science, osteopathy, 

 chiropractic, and patent medicines with flaunting advertise- 

 ments are much in evidence, action has, as far as is possible 

 in the circumstances of the legislature's arrangements, 



