Biology and Medicine 467 



ers, and causing an economic loss in sickness and death of 

 untold millions. 



The announcement by Dr. Stiles of the part which the hook- 

 worm was playing in undermining the mental and physical 

 health of multitudes of people in the South, in causing in- 

 calculable financial loss and retarding the development of 

 the country, was at first greeted with amusement or indiffer- 

 ence, followed by active hostility. He at once became the 

 subject of the usual campaign of the newspaper reporter and 

 cartoonist, which greets every innovator, especially in an un- 

 progressive and conservative community. In an early con- 

 ference at Raleigh, N. C., "an incredulous physician in the 

 audience asked him if the disease existed there. 'I see sev- 

 eral pronounced cases in the room now, ' he replied. A local 

 newspaper declared that the Commission was slandering the 

 community; the Governor gave out an interview in praise 

 of the health of the fair land that, he ruled over and de- 

 nouncing its slanderers. Sketches of the lives of aged men 

 of the neighborhood were published, to prove the healthful- 

 ness of the community, and much other such nonsense and 

 ignorance was put forth." 15 



The opportunity for service in the fight against the hook- 

 worm was early brought to the attention of Mr. John D. 

 Rockefeller, and the result was the organization of the Rocke- 

 feller Hookworm Commission in 1909. Briefly the work of 

 this Commission, in co-operation with state boards of health 

 throughout the South, has been the establishment of travel- 

 ing dispensaries for treating the sufferers and educating the 

 people in general regarding the danger, prevention and cure 

 of the disease. The following quotations taken from the Com- 

 mission 's report for 1911 illustrate better than mere figures 

 what the Commission has done in its service to the South. 



"When the work began two years ago the people did not 

 know hookworm disease as a disease. The announcement of 

 its prevalence they had not taken seriously. It was ex- 

 tremely difficult to induce them to be examined, and even 

 more difficult to get them when found infected to consent to 

 treatment. The physician could not treat them until they 

 had been shown that it was to their interest to seek his aid. 

 For two years systematic effort has been made to give them 

 the facts. The educational activities outlined in the report 

 for last year have been persistently pursued in each State; 

 the people have been taught by public lectures with charts 

 and lantern slides, by bulletins and folders, by the public 

 press, by exhibits at State and county fairs, by the examina- 

 15 "World's Work," Vol. 24, p. 505. 



