THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



149 



Native Lecturer. When the Campaign reaches 



a village, an intelligent native is selected to 



carry out the work amongst his fellows. 



This depicts one in his uniform. 



sewage info the sea gives complete pro- 

 tection, for the salt in the water abso- 

 lutely prevents the development of the 



larvae. In infected areas, parents can 

 largely protect their children from infec- 

 tion by seeing that they never go barefoot 

 (in polluted ground. 



The hookworm larvae can develop only 

 in warm, moist earth. Except in certain 

 parts of Australia, in the far north and 

 near the eastern seaboard, the soil is too 

 dry for the larvae, or the climate is too 

 cold at the times when there is sufficient 

 moisture. In the regions where surface 

 conditions are unfavorable for the larvae, 

 it is only in a few of the deepest mines 

 that temperature, moisture, soil pollution, 

 and other circumstances, ])rovide a suit- 

 a,l)le environment and permit hookworm 

 disease to spread, but even there it can 

 be controlled by proper sanitation. 



To study and control this disease in 

 Austi'alia, so that it may not interfere 

 with the development of the north and 

 the mines, the Australian Hookworm 

 Campaign is being carried on jointly by 

 the Commonwealth Department of Health, 

 the International Health Board of tlie 

 Rockefeller Foundation, and the States. 

 Two hundred and ten tliousand people 

 have been examined for hookworm e2:g», 

 and forty-eight thousand have been found 

 to be infected. Thirty-three thousand 

 sufferers have already been cured by the 

 hookworm campaign. But the most im- 

 portant part of the work is prevention by 

 stopping soil pollution. Thousands of 

 latrines have been rendered safe, and 

 iiuu'h educational work has been done 

 through the press, through illustrated lec- 

 tures, and by means of pamphlets. The 

 object of the Campaign is to prevent the 

 spread of the disease, and to establish 

 permanent measures of control. To do 

 this it must hare the help of citizens who 

 understand. 



The common hookworm of Australia and the Pacific Islands, Necator americanus, female. The 

 -full-grown hookworm' is half to two-thirds of an inch in length. One female may deposit as 



many as a thousand eggs a day. . . 



