496 MAN CONTBOLS HIS ENVIRONMENT FOlt HEALTH 



The prevention of bookworm lies in sanitary toilets and in 

 proper covering for the feet. The remedy for the disease is very 

 simple : thymol, which weakens the hold of the hookworm, fol- 

 lowed by Epsom salts, which helps pass it from the body. 



For years a large area in the South undoubtedly has been 

 retarded in its development by this parasite ; hundreds of millions 

 of dollars have been wasted and thousands of lives have been 

 needlessly sacrificed. The Rockefeller Foundation has made a 

 study of conditions all over the world and finds that in almost all 

 semitropical countries the hookworm is present and that in some 

 parts of the world almost all the people are infected. 



" The hookworm is not a bit spectacular : it doesn't get itself discussed 

 in legislative halls or furiously debated in political campaigns. Modest 

 and unassuming, it does not aspire to such dignity. It is satisfied simply 

 with (1) lowering the working efficiency and the pleasure of living in some- 

 thing like two hundred thousand persons in Georgia and all other Southern 

 states in proportion ; with (2) amassing a death rate higher than tubercu- 

 losis, pneumonia, or typhoid fever ; with (3) stubbornly and quite effectu- 

 ally retarding the agricultural and industrial development of the section ; 

 with (4) nullifying the benefit of thousands of dollars spent upon educa- 

 tion ; with (5) costing the South, in the course of a few decades, several 

 hundred millions of dollars. More serious and closer at hand than the 

 tariff ; . . . making the menace of the boll weevil laughable in compari- 

 son — it is preeminently the problem of the South." — Atlanta Constitution. 



Practical Exercise 24. Work out a suggested control of hookworm in the 

 United States and report to the class. 



Debate the statement from the Atlanta Constitution, using tuberculosis as 

 the opposing disease. 



Self-Testing Exercise 



Check the true statements for your workbook : 



T. F. 1 . One form of tapeworm, parasitic in man, lives as an embryo in 

 the muscles of cattle. 



T. F. 2. The tropical disease, elephantiasis, is caused by small round- 

 worms. 



T. F. 3. People who live in hookworm-infested districts should 

 never go barefoot. 



