Show the germ of laziness found by scientists y persons afflicted are arc to be pitied not NO blamed doctors tb say disease Is rapidly spreading in this country the cure Is easy and its effect certain HE discovery of the germ of laziness by dr C W stiles a govern ment scientist attached to the public health and marine hospital service is no mere fin achievement but an addition to hu man knowledge of most serious and tar far reaching importance it accounts for the chronic indolence of the poor white trash in parts ol 01 the south and explains the true char acter of a hitherto mysterious dis dig ease which Is being brought back by our soldiers from the philippines and which is characterized by a sive give wasting ot of body and mind the dirt eaters ol 01 south carolina are mostly victims of it and the physical degradation of many of the workers in the cotton mills of dixie land is attributable to the same mal ady the germ in question Is a ml nute worm which Is swallowed un knowingly in water and which at laches itself to the inner wall of the intestine of its human victim his blood it pursues this sort of ex farence through many years unless driven by proper treatment to desist and one result of the con linual drain of vital fluid Is a fright persons whose dally daily life brings them into contact with damp earth such as canal diggers tunnel diggers miners and bricknal brick mal ers during the progress of the digging of the st gothard tun nel through the alps connecting switzerland with italy it became so prevalent as to acquire the name of st gothard disease eventually it is liable to be fatal the sufferer dying literally of echaus ful impoverishment of the blood ac compan companied fed by utter lassitude and dis inclination to do anything in parts of the south from 8 to 15 per cent of the children in orphan asylums are thus afflicted and one of the effects of the malady Is to stunt and dwarf young persons to such an extent as to diminish their apparent age by three to five years inasmuch as the lazy disease once recognized Is easy to cure oure the importance of dr stiles discovery Is easily understood he says that it la Is J 4 mouth of hookworm showing hooks by which it takes hold largely accountable for the backward condition of some of the spanish american peoples and that the wip ing out ot of it would greatly increase the amount of work obtainable from employed emp loyes in the cotton mills and other factories in the southern states no time should be lost in attacking the mischief lef which Is rapidly spread ing in this country nobody Is exempt from the infection which will reduce the strongest and most active man to a state of utmost debility within a few years dr stiles has hits been working on thi this problem under the direction of surg gen wyman of the marine hospital service to whom credit tor for the dincov er eo Is largely due he ile states that the complaint Is of unknown origin in the united states having existed here ap parent ly since time immemorial it la Is w J TN alp IAM JOIL 4 1 male and female hookworms brought hither by immigrants from abroad but there seems to be a form of it peculiarly american and which Is common all the way from virginia to brazil so serious Is the plague of it on the isthmus of panama that the men em aloyed to dig the canal will certainly be infected with it by wholesale unless preventive measure measures are taken the malady Is most common among tion where 1000 or more of the parasites are present in the body of a man all of them busily engaged la in tapping his blood supply it Is only a question of time when he must BUO sue cumb |