ABSTRACT
The infecting agent of hookworm disease in its embryonic stage bores its way through the human skin, and this disease illustrates, perhaps better than any other disease the close relationship between defective sanitation and disease. The victims of this disease are apathetic and feeble both in body and mind. The natural history of hookworm disease unmistakably teaches that the most effective means for preventing it consists in elementary sanitation. The disease is acquired chiefly by the class of persons who, in hot climates, go about with bare feet, and thus come into contact with the embryoes of the hookworm. The essential principle in the prevention of hookworm disease is the provision for every family of a cheap fool-proof latrine. It should preferably be movable, the pit being adequately covered when the wooden framework of the privy is moved. The provision of gratuitous treatment forms an important public health measure.
