August 1, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



167 



tions of the unfavorable results of a deficiency 

 of protein in the dietary." 



The statement most open to criticism in the 

 article of Dr. Wherry is that concerning the 

 generally recognized inferiority of the native 

 inhabitants of India. A recent estimate ob- 

 tained by the Eockefeller Sanitary Commis- 

 sion that 60 to 80 per cent, of these people are 

 infected with the hookworm, is supposed to 

 " explain away " this inferiority, without ref- 

 erence at all to the diet in vogue. By those 

 who are familiar with the elaborate investiga- 

 tions of D. McCay of the dietaries of the Ban- 

 galis and other races of India, upon which has 

 been based, rightly or wrongly, one of the most 

 formidable arguments against the well-known 

 views of Chittenden, this statement of Dr. 

 Wherry must have been read with no small 

 degree of interest and curiosity. 



In Publication No. 6 of the Eockefeller 

 Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of 

 Hookworm Disease, entitled, " Hookworm In- 

 fection in Foreign Countries," the estimate 

 above quoted of the degree of infection in 

 India is given on the authority of various 

 medical men who are undoubtedly well-in- 

 formed on the matter. However, the Ameri- 

 can Vice-consul, C. B. Perry, is quoted as say- 

 ing (1911): 



Nothing is being done by governmental agencies 

 to alleviate or eradicate the disease except the 

 usual sanitary measures for the prevention of fecal 

 contamination of the soil and hospital treatment 

 of incapacitated patients, . . . The conclusion that 

 I have arrived at is that though widely prevalent 

 in India, the disease is not considered of a dan- 

 gerous nature and no special steps have been 

 deemed necessary as yet to csmbat it. 



An editorial appearing in the Indian Med- 

 ical Gazette, a journal from which the Eocke- 

 feller Sanitary Commission obtained much of 

 its information concerning conditions in 

 India, in the issue of May, 1913, is of great 

 interest in this connection. In commenting 

 upon a clinical method recently investigated 

 by Stiles and Altman of this country, for de- 

 termining the completeness of cure in ankylo- 

 stomiasis (hookworm disease), the following 

 IS said: 



It would be interesting to compare the figures 

 with those of India, but in attempting to do so 

 one is faced at once by the diificulty that the 

 question seems to have been approached in the two 

 countries from entirely different points of view. 

 In America, it is evident from the huge nmnber 

 of worms per case, which is well over 1,000, that 

 those are being treated who are suffering from 

 ill-health as the result of infection, that is to say, 

 that they are real instances of ankylostomiasis. 

 In India, on the contrary, the matter has been 

 chiefly taken up as a routine examination of all 

 prisoners admitted into a jail, and most of such 

 men are healthy. In these cases an infection of 

 100 worms appears to be quite unusual, and quite 

 naturally an infection of a dozen worms will make 

 no appreciable difference to a man. These slight 

 infections are the rule in India, the percentage 

 infected varies in different parts from about 35 

 to 75 in men of the laboring classes, and the mild 

 infection seems to have no effect on the health of 

 the host. This general mild infection makes any 

 anti-ankylostoma campaign quite hopeless in this 

 country for many years to' come. Severe cases do, 

 of course, occur, but, speaking generally, we hear 

 little of them. Their relative distribution in dif- 

 ferent parts of India is unknown. Our knowledge 

 of ankylostomes in India is quite meager, in spite 

 of the amount of work which has been done by 

 I. M. S. officers, and much of the work will have 

 to be done over again. 



Apparently, hookworm infection, while com^ 

 mon in India — at least among the laboring 

 classes — is in the great majority of cases ex- 

 tremely light and can not be supposed to exert 

 any noticeable effect upon health and develop- 

 ment. To ascribe the racial inferiority of the 

 inhabitants of India, therefore, to such infec- 

 tion seems entirely unwarranted from the data 

 at hand. 



Thus, the question of Dr. Wherry, " Is there 

 any evidence whatever that a low protein diet 

 ever causes or aids in the production of racial 

 inferiority," is in precisely the same status 

 now as it was before his article appeared. In 

 fact, however much one may disagree with the 

 interpretation that McCay puts upon his own 

 data, the unprejudiced must admit that the 

 data are extremely suggestive of a deleterious 

 effect of long-continued adherence to the low- 

 protein dietary. However much one may be- 



