summer months.

_Course of the Disease._--Having entered through the skin, the embryos of
the hook-worm, moving by a circuitous route finally reach the intestines,
and, grasping hold of the mucous membrane with their saw-like teeth, they
begin to suck blood and grow until they reach the size of the adult worm
in about a month or six weeks. Depending upon the number which have
gained entrance, and the susceptibility of the individual, there now
begins to develop symptoms of profound anaemia; the skin of the child
becomes very pale, and assumes a sort of yellowish hue, and in cases
where there is a severe infection, the victim begins to suffer with
shortness of breath and dropsy. When this occurs the patient sometimes
dies, but more commonly death results from contracting some other
disease, which, under ordinary conditions, would produce no serious
results. One of the most unfortunate effects of this malady is that when
children become infected they cease to grow, and frequently retain the
appearance of early youth even after they have reached full maturity in
years. These unfortunates are generally incorrectly regarded as
dirt-eaters. The symptoms frequently last over a period of many years, as
in the intestines of these victims the worms that originally infect them
live certainly eight or ten years, and during this period it is beyond
question true that additions to the original number are frequently
received.

_Diagnosis and Treatment._--There is no disease that can be
diagnosticated with more ease and certainty; the eggs are present in the
feces in great numbers, and by means of a microscope they can always be
detected. In all cases where the disease is suspected, a half-teaspoonful
of the feces of the person supposed to be infected should be placed in a
bottle and sent to a competent microscopist for examination. This is done
free of charge at the laboratories of most State Boards of Health in
those parts of the country where the malady exists. Whenever an
individual shows the symptoms above detailed, an intelligent physician
should at once be called. We have medicines that act as specifics, and
the disease can always be cured in a very short period of time.

_Preventive Measures._--Of course the best method of preventing this
disease is to administer to those already infected the proper medicines,
and cause the expulsion from the intestines of the worms that lay the
eggs.

The indiscriminate scattering of the f