38 The Bulletin. 



So much for the educated nose. But what about the specific causes of 

 diseases that have no odor? In typhoid fever the water that contains 

 the typhoid bacilli may be ordorless and tasteless. If we drink it, wash 

 our milk cans and dishes in it, or even use it in brushing our teeth, how 

 great is the danger. The only thing that can save us from its ravages is a 

 strong, healthy organism, with a standing army of blood cells that may be 

 able to cast out the invading germs, should they find tissue upon which 

 they can thrive. The only humane thing to do is to use every preventive 

 from spreading by disinfecting the excreta before it leaves the sick-room, 

 washing of the bed linen in carbolic solution and careful boiling, disinfecting 

 the hands and care of the finger nails, destroying food taken from sick- 

 room. These rules will hold good in all communicable diseases. 



The voice of to-day says prevent disease by careful attention to details. 



After a six weeks' trip through North Carolina observation has led me 

 to this conclusion, that cleanliness — in the home, the school and the churches — 

 would do more to eradicate disease than all other methods combined. What 

 do I mean by cleanliness in the home? Clean air, clean beds that are 

 permeated with sunshine at least once a week and thoroughly aired every 

 day ; no carpets unless they can be taken up and cleaned regularly. If 

 there is no water supply in the house — and the exception is where they have, 

 and not the rule — there should be two sauitary closets on the outside, kept 

 free from odors by the free use of dry earth and lime; hickory or oak 

 wood ashes can be used. A drain pipe should be in every kitchen ; but 

 where there is none, dish water, soap-suds and the like should never be 

 poured in the same place until the soil becomes soured and makes a hotbed 

 for germs. Lime should be used freely, as it keeps the soil about the 

 premises in healthy condition. Every church and schoolhouse should be 

 provided with the closets and the same precautions taken as in the house, 

 and even more so, because the flies are always there ready to carry any 

 germ they find in the excreta. 



Now I come to the most far-reaching, most important of all the diseases 

 produced by carelessness, and that is hookworm — important because other 

 diseases are recognized by every sensible man and woman, which, for no 

 reason except prejudice, even members of the medical profession refuse to 

 recognize its existence. People afflicted with it seem to think it a disgrace, 

 and refuse to be treated for it. With Dr. Stiles, I believe the extermination 

 of the hookworm would settle two very important problems — that of child 

 labor and compulsory education. Of child labor, because no manufacturer 

 in the twentieth century, with every effort being put forth by church and 

 State to help the child, would employ a child under fourteen years old if 

 they could get the children over fourteen years to do the work. Again I 

 quote Dr. Stiles : Thirty per cent of children born on the farm die before 

 they are twenty-one years old. As to compulsory education : Beyond doubt 

 disease of all kinds blunts the intellect as well as the body ; especially is this 

 true in hookworm disease. I know a boy sixteen years old who had hook- 

 worm for eight years. He would not go to school, he could not work. After 

 three months' treatment, he plowed from sunrise until sunset, and has 

 expressed a desire to go to school when the school term begins. North 

 Carolina provides public schools for her children. If they are well physically 

 and mentally, they will find a way to attend school, without being forced to 

 do so by law. 



Sanitation is the only permanent cure for hookworm. I need not go into 

 a description of the disease. The Progressive Farmer has recently published 

 articles that fully describe it. Soil pollution is the direct cause ; therefore, 

 every woman who keeps a home, patronizes a school or attends a church 

 should be interested in the extermination of this disease. It is a broad 

 field for home missionary societies, because many of the hookworm victims 

 cannot read or write, and do not even know where the trouble lies. County 

 physicians should give the treatment and explain the danger of soil pollution. 

 Teachers should give talks on health and how to preserve it by prevention of 



