1912< THE NEW-VORKER 
THE AMERICAN HOOKWORM. 
There were several questions asked in The K. N.-Y. 
about the South, two or three months ago, that I would down the follicles of the hairs through the skin. Once 
like to see answered. Could you tell the life history of 
the hookworm, its effects on the victim and the sections 
in which it is prevalent? I would like to know what 
has been found out about it. e. r. 
Port Dover, Canada. 
In 1896 Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, during a lecture 
to some medical students on animal parasites said, ‘‘If 
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the skin an itching sensation takes place, due to the precautions and may be cured by the use of simple 
fact that the parasites are actually working their way cheap drugs. In the first place, paradoxical as it 
sounds, the dirt about the home must be kept clean 
by having good outhouses which should be built at 
safe distances from wells and springs of drinking 
water. Scrupulous care should be exercised at all 
times regarding the hands bearing particles of soil 
contaminated with the worms. If the soil about the 
home is kept clean there is little danger, hence the 
through the skin they work their way to the intestines. 
The young hookworms do not seem able to exist in 
a dried form floating among dust particles and, there¬ 
fore, probably do not enter the body by being breathed 
in with the air. 
HOW HOOKWORMS AFFECT A PATIENT.— 
any of you ever go South or into the tropics, and find Victims of these parasites are injured; (1) by the great importance of proper sanitary precautions. 
a case of anemia, the cause of which is not clear to loss of blood drained out by the worms; (2) by the Shoes should be worn during wet weather in infected 
regions, and bare feet should be washed clean at 
least once a day. The great cure, however, is thymol 
followed by Epsom salts, two cheap drugs within the 
reach of every one. Thymol is a powerful drug, and 
should be used only under the direction of a physician. 
It seems to stun the worms and loosen their holds 
on the intestines, after which they may be expelled 
similar on man. Sitting in the class at the time of expression, with a characteristic stare of fixed lustre- by the use of salts. The discovery of Ashford and 
the lecture was a young man by the name of Ashford, less eyes. They become, in advanced cases, very 
anemic and emaciated. In addition, the face and 
abdomen may assume a dropsical condition. In fact, 
- 7 \- / ~ J -— 
you, look for a hookworm like that found in the dogs loss of blood running into the intestines from the 
at Washington.” Dr. Stiles had not, at that time, found wounds made by the worms: (3) the walls of certain 
the hookworm in man in America, but he knew that parts of the intestines where the worms are located 
such a disease existed in the Old World, and that hook- become thickened and degenerated so that they fail 
worms were common in dogs, sheep and cattle. More- to perform their work; (4) the worms in all proba- 
over, he knew the effect of these hookworms on ani- bility produce a poisonous substance which acts upon 
mals, and reasoned that if present their effect would be the patient. Affected persons present a dull, stupid 
similar on man. Sitting in the class at the time of 
the lecture was a young man by the name of Ashford, 
who afterwards went to Porto Rico with the words 
of his teacher fresh in his mind. Dr. Ashford found 
among almost his first cases some of a peculiar it is common for the abdomen to become abnormally 
anemia, the cause of which he did not know. He 
made a microscopical examination and found, as his 
distended. Children are undersized and underde¬ 
veloped. Boys and girls of 12 and 14 are no larger 
the later investigations and work of Stiles in the 
United States, fill one with admiration and enthusi¬ 
asm. Who can estimate the happiness, relief from 
misery, resulting from this work? glenn w. herrick. 
brilliant teacher had prophesied, the hookworm. Fol- than normal children of six or eight. Abnormal ap- 
lowing this up he found that one-third of the deaths 
in Porto Rico were due to the hookworm. With this 
as a beginning Dr. Stiles took up the 
work of investigation in the United 
States. The reports of Dr. Stiles read 
almost like the story of a knight in 
quest of wrongs to right. He found 
the “poor whites,” “crackers,” “sand- 
hillers,” “barrenites,” or “pine-landers” 
as they are variously called, from North 
Carolina to Florida and Texas, suffering 
from these blood-sucking, life-sapping 
parasites. 
WHAT A HOOKWORM IS.—The 
American hookworm, Uncinaria ameri- 
cana, comes of a family of thread-like 
or round worms, many of which have 
most pernicious habits. In fact, nearly 
the whole family is rotten to the core. 
Among its relatives we find the gape- 
worms of chickens, the colic-worms of 
horses, the kidney-worms of hogs, the 
notorious Guinea worm of the Old 
World and the dangerous trichina of 
hogs in this country, which man obtains 
by eating infested pork and which often 
proves fatal. The hookworm is from 
one-third to nearly one-half an inch in 
length, and just about as thick as an 
ordinary hat-pin. It is provided with 
an armature of sharp teeth, by means 
of which it penetrates the inner lining 
of the intestines and starts the blood 
flowing. It also has a strong muscular 
gullet, with which it is able to suck the 
blood from the wound that is made. It 
is a blood-sucker, and when present in 
the intestines of man it attaches itself 
to the walls of these organs and sucks 
the blood. 
ITS LIFE HISTORY.—Although the 
life history of the American hookworm 
has not yet been worked out in every 
detail, yet enough is known to say that 
it is very similar to the life history of 
the Old World hookworm which is well 
petites are usually developed, and the victims become 
“dirt-eaters,” “resin-chewers,” “snuff-dippers,” “in¬ 
“WE HAVE NOT BEEN INTRODUCED.” Fig. 517 . 
known. The full-grown hookworms are found inside 
the intestines of man in greater or less numbers, 
depending upon the severity of the case. Here the 
female worms lay their eggs, which are discharged 
with the faeces, for the eggs will not develop inside 
the body of man. After the eggs reach the air they 
hatch, and the young hookworms live in water or 
moist ground and become partially grown. It is in 
this partly grown condition that they are ready to 
enter the human body again. When once in the 
alimentary tract these young worms finish their 
growth, becoming mature, and lay eggs, thus complet¬ 
ing the life history. 
HOW HOOKWORMS GAIN ACCESS TO 
MAN’S BODY.—Hookworms appear to obtain access 
to the alimentary tract of man in two or three ways. 
The young, immature worms may be swallowed with 
contaminated food or with drinking water. People 
who handle dirt or come in contact with it during 
their work are apt to get the minute invisible worms 
on their hands. It is then easy for the worms to be 
conveyed to the mouth. The worms may also enter 
the body by actually working their way down the 
hair follicles, through the skin, and thence to the 
intestines. It has been shown that if a drop of 
water containing the young hookworms is placed upon 
ebriates,” etc. In all, the energy and ambition are 
gone and they exist as “poor whites.” These people 
have been scoffed at and derided as worthless, when 
really they were suffering untold pains during the long 
dreary days of all these many years. Surely they 
have borne an awful burden, but thanks to a man of 
large vision succor is near. 
WHERE THE' DISEASE IS PREVALENT.— 
The American hookworm disease is confined to the 
warmer portions of the United States. It has been 
found from Virginia to Florida and Texas. Cases 
existing in the more northern States are usually traced 
to an infection obtained in a tropical or subtropical 
PRIZES FOR WALNUT BREAD. 
In a recent R. N.-Y. it is editorially stated : “The meat 
of the future will grow on trees to a large extent.” 
It is an admitted fact that nuts are 
more nutritious and healthful food than 
flesh, and their consumption is greatly 
increasing year by year. The fact of 
this country consuming more than 50,- 
000,000 pounds of English walnuts a 
year assists one in grasping this thought. 
But of this stupendous amount 27,000,- 
000 pounds have to be imported. The 
late Prof. John Craig said in an address 
at Western New York Horticultural 
Society, January 26 of this year: “We 
import each year from various foreign 
lands nuts to the value of 12 or 13 
millions of dollars. This amount, we 
may be surprised to know, is more than 
the value of all the apples exported 
in any one year from both Canada and 
the United States.” 
Admitting the beneficial employment 
of nuts in the diet, anything which tends 
to encourage their more general use is 
surely a step in the right direction. In 
the forthcoming programme of the 
Western New York Horticultural So¬ 
ciety you will find three prizes offered 
by the writer and accepted by the 
secretary over a month ago. “Contest 
in making English walnut bread, open 
to the girls, as well as their mothers: 
first, second and third prizes to be $15, 
$10 and $5 worth of Hardy Pomeroy 
English walnut trees. Contestants using 
the following recipe or one of their 
own: English Walnut Bread—One egg, 
one -half cup of sugar, 1 y 3 cup of sweet 
milk, four cups pastry flour, four tea¬ 
spoons baking powder, one teaspoon of 
salt, one cup of English walnut meats 
in small (one-fourth) parts stirred 
through batter; two ordinary sized 
bread tins; let stand three-fourths of an 
hour before putting in oven.” This is a 
tested recipe, but others are good. 
It would be a favor to me, and I think to many 
other readers, if anyone having a good tried recipe 
for making English walnut bread would send same 
for publication in The R. N.-Y. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. daniel n. pomeroy. 
Every Fall we have many questions about the wis¬ 
dom of feeding silage to horses. There have been 
reports of sickness and death from such feeding, and 
we think the general advice is to keep silage away 
from the horses. Yet why so? Such cases of trouble 
as we have been able to run down seem to show that 
the silage fed to the horses was very sour or moldy. 
It is evident that there is more difference between 
region. The disease is mainly a rural one, apparently of silage than between different loaves 
of bread. Almost any of these samples might be fed 
confined chiefly to regions of sandy soil. Moreover, 
the poorer people are largely the sufferers. It is in 
the country where the sanitation of the home sur¬ 
roundings is totally neglected that the hookworms 
hold sway. Dr. Stiles says that in many communities 
to cattle, but it is clear that inferior silage should 
never be fed to horses. Some experiments at the 
Pennsylvania State College lead to the following con¬ 
clusion : 
Silage, which is made from mature corn, is free from 
mold, has not been exposed to air too long before feeding 
which he visited, with the exception of the planters’ and is properly supplemented with other feeds which will 
make up the deficiency in protein, can be fed to horses 
homes, not over half of the country homes had any 
outhouses at all. Many of these people go barefooted 
a large part of the year and undoubtedly they become 
infected through their feet. 
with safety when care is used to have them become 
gradually accustomed to it. 
These same experiments show that cotton-seed meal 
may be used to some extent to replace oats in a ration 
Axm ™ t. , for horses - This is another new one, for most of us 
PREVENTION AND CURE.—The hookworm have been taught to believe that cotton-seed meal is 
disease may be prevented by taking certain sanitary dangerous food for horses, hogs or hens. 
