Newspapers / The Caduceus (Charlotte, N.C.) / June 8, 1918, edition 1 / Page 6
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m Mayer- Blanton Company Wholesale Grocers 43 and 45 S. College St. When a fine southern shower has swept past the camp and the air is fresh and you feel like a kid again, only your shoes burn your feet and your leggins are tight, and you want to start out barefooted and paddle along through the stickey clay—don't do it. That is one way to get the hook worm. That is how many of the hook worm patients now in the hospital picked up the parasite. Another thing, be careful about eating unwashed vegetables. The hook-worm may be on the leafy par ticles and he is anxious to , enter your system. Three of the base hospital wards hold many hook-worm patients. The men who suffer from the ailment are natives of the far south. There are a few victims from the Carollnas. Most of the men have been farmers or en- ■ gaged in occupations vhich took them out upon the ground. Nearly a hundred hook-worm cases have been treated at the base hos pital this spring although a goodly per cent of the men have gone from the hospital and are cured. Most of the victims do not know that they are hook-worm patients when they come to the hospital. They have been tak en out of line because they were slug gish in action and because they come from the south. No hook-worm victim has yet appeared from a northern state. Hook-worm is one of the most prev alent of intestinal parasites. In the United States it is found in the south ern belt of states, chiefly Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Its effect on the efficiency of the man as a soldier is shown by the fact that the War Department has ordered an examination of every soldier from the hook-worm region. The parasite is about one-half inch in length and has a thread-like ap pearance, tapering to a narrow necks, ending with a mouth cavity armed with four hooks and two clonical teeth. It inhabits the upper part of the small testine where it attaches it self by burrowing tl ese strong hooks into the mucous membrane. It sus tains Itself by sucking the blood from this membrane. Thus the mal-effect of the parasite is two-fold; It not only produces a constant drain on the sys tem by sucking the blood, causing anemia, but it also leayes innumerable holes in the mucous membrane, per mitting the growth of infectious bac teria. The parasite also secrets a toxin which aids In the production ol anemia. The female lays many eggs In the Intestine but these do not hatch until they haye been passed out Into the air Therefore the pardsites do not multiply within the Intestinal tract. In the presence of air the ova hatch, and af ter the young worm has matured In the sand or dirt. It is ready to make Its way back Into the human body. THE CADUCEUS. BEAT THE HOOK-WORM FOR AVIATORS DON’T GO BAREFOOTED OVER CLAY KNOBS OF DIXIE. CAMP GREENE BASE HOSPITAL ENLAFIGEMENT RECOMMENDED. "Secretary Baker has decided that Camp Greens shall be used as an aviation concentration camp ^nere squadrons v/ })e assembled, organ ized and equipped. The board of officers which visited Charlotte several weeks ago made three recommendations as to the fu ture of Camp Greene as follows; 1. That the camp be abandoned as a divisional camp. 2. That the remount station be dis continued, and 3. That the camp be used only for hospital purposes. Secretary Baker approved the first two recommendations, but overruled the third. Secretary Baker said that Camp Greene would be used by at least 15,- 000 men and perhaps 26,000 at times. The base hospital wdll be continued and Improved from time to time. General Gorgas has intimated re peatedly that he would like to make of Camp Greene a large and modern army hospital. The baseh ospital now cares for 1,500 men. MYSTERIES OF LIFE. The previous service man, a firs'- class private, who salutes with the front fore finger of his left hand. How would he have saluted if he had been a sergeant? The sergeant who carries an um brella above hIs heaa when down m the city. Reveille. Psychiologlcal examinations. By means of its hooks, the young larvae burrows Its way through the skin, usually between the toes, and gets Into the blood vessels and lymphatics. They are carried to the lungs, ascend the trachea and get into the saliva. The patient swallows the saliva and the parasites are again in the stomach and intestine. This meth od of entrance Is the usual one in the case of farm laborers walking in In fected soil with bare feet. Infection may also come as a result of eating vegetables not properly washed. ■The chief symptoms of hook-worm Infection are; depraved appetite, with gastric and Intestinal disturbances, marked retardation of geneiardevelop- ment, with weak, flabby muscles. The mind is slow and torbid. It accounts for the fact that a large proportion of the recruits for the army from southern states are under de yeloped and physically inferior to the northern-bred men of JUe same age. It may readily be seen tbac a man whose development had been retarded, his muscles weak and flabby, and his mind slow and sluggish, would be of little value as a soldier. Every man in the army found to be inferior is given a prescribed treat ment which takes about three to four ' PRIVATE ARTHUR C. PAY.
The Caduceus (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 8, 1918, edition 1
6
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