Note 50 — PART II THE PROBLEM FACED

There seems to be no doubt that the economic and social future of the South must be radically influenced by the campaign against the hookworm—uncinaria—which, financed by Mr. Rockefeller, is being actively set on foot. This intestinal parasite, which works its way in through the skin, has only of late years been recognized and studied; and as yet scarcely a beginning has been made in that cleansing of the polluted soil which is the obvious and only method of mastering the pest. Both races suffer from it, but the negro far less than the white; and it is said that the laziness and shiftlessness of the “po’ white trash” of the South is almost entirely due to the terrible anæmia produced by its ravages. If this “poor white” population could be converted from two million degraded paupers into as many healthy and industrious citizens, the effect on the labour-market would certainly be far-reaching. The disease ought to be a comparatively easy one to stamp out; and, even when infection has occurred, it commonly yields, in early stages, to a simple treatment.