REDEEMING THE TROPICS 



353 



majority must have been directly or in- 

 directly victims of malaria. 



But where steps as stern against ma- 

 laria are taken as are required for the 

 eradication of yellow fever, the results 

 are magnificent. In Italy an anti-mala- 

 rial campaign cut down the number of 

 deaths from 16,000 a year to 4,000. In 

 Greece, on the plains of Marathon, in 

 1906, 90 per cent of the sickness was due 

 to malaria; in 1908 only 2 per cent of 

 the sickness was due to it. 



The wonderful results attained in 

 fighting malaria at Ismailia, on the Suez 

 Canal, surpasses anything that has been 

 done in any part of the world. In 1900 

 there were 2,284 cases of malaria in that 

 town. Sir Ronald Ross was called there 

 to consider methods of banishing the dis- 

 ease, and laid out a program in that di- 

 rection. In 1901 the number of cases fell 

 to 1,990; in 1902 to 1,551 ; in 1904 to 90 ; 

 in 1905 to 37. Since that time there have 

 been no cases reported except such as 

 were infected before visiting Ismailia. 

 The malarial mosquito was absolutely ex- 

 terminated there — something which prob- 

 ably has not been done in any other part 

 of the earth. 



One might go on indefinitely citing 

 cases where cities and districts have 

 arisen in their might to put an end to 

 malaria and with magic results. 



HOOKWORM DISKASi: VANQUISHED 



If vast consequences have grown out 

 of the solution of the mysteries of yellow 

 fever and malaria, they are probably no 

 greater than are destined to come to the 

 people of tropic and semi-tropic regions 

 through the mastery of the hookworm. 



Around the earth there stretches a belt 

 66 degrees wide, embracing 47 countries 

 and an area of 15 million square miles, 

 in which there lives a population of 

 nearly a billion people. This belt is the 

 hookworm belt of the world. How many 

 cases of this distressing and strength- 

 wrecking disease there are in this vast 

 territory cannot be estimated with any 

 degree of approximation. 



In 1904 some 90 out of every 100 of 

 the working population of Porto Rico 



had the disease. In Colombia 90 per cent 

 of the people living between sea-level and 

 the 3,000-foot level were suffering from 

 it. Fifty per cent of the people in British 

 Guiana are said to be afflicted. Not less 

 than i,8oc,ooo of the people of India are 

 reported as having the disease, and in the 

 southern part of China it is estimated that 

 three out of four people are sufferers. 



The economic loss involved is oeyond 

 estimate. In Porto Rico the physically 

 sound coffee-picker picks from 500 to 

 600 measures of coffee a day; scores of 

 those suffering from hookworm disease 

 can pick only from 100 to 250 measures 

 a day. In some regions it is estimated 

 that not more than 33 per cent of the 

 natural efficiency of any force of men 

 can be exercised because of the terrible 

 problem of hookworm disease. 



Yet hookworm disease is about the 

 most easily mastered of all the diseases 

 in the category. Its cause is easily dem- 

 onstrable to the laymen, even to the ig- 

 norant layman, because he can see, with- 

 out the aid of a microscope, the little 

 hair-line worms that cause it. Its spread 

 is easily checked, because the wearing of 

 shoes and a little care against soil pollu- 

 tion is all that is demanded. 



A SIMPLE .VXD EASY CURE 



It is easily cured, because in most cases 

 simply a dose of epsom salts, followed by 

 a dose of thymol, and that in turn by an- 

 other dose of salts, is effective. Thymol 

 is made from the thyme of the garden, 

 and is just about as simple and as harm- 

 less in its action as the epsom salts. If 

 the first treatment does not answer, the 

 second one usually will. Furthermore, 

 the disease is one that lends itself ad- 

 mirably to the getting of quick results. 

 It converts a lazy, sickly, good-for-noth- 

 ing boy or girl into a sprightly, energetic 

 one in the course of a few weeks. 



That has been the secret of a major 

 portion of the success of the Rockefeller 

 Sanitary Commission in its work of rid- 

 ding the South from the disease. The 

 results were so striking that the States 

 and the counties were glad to help along 

 the task. Tens of thousands of so-called 

 "poor white trash" have been cured of it, 



