This is exactly right.

The smart Alex scientists were not satisfied to declare our cows stumbling symbols of certain

death.

They declared that hookworms were literally nong us into the grave.

We had never heard of Charles Worder's styles, who had headed a commission to eradicate

the hookworm, or the writer Walter Heinz page who promoted his efforts, or the St.

Gauthard tunnel in Italy, where the dread parasites had caused the death of so many of the

workers.

The crusade against our unseen enemy was sprung on us suddenly.

In August 1912, the Winston County Journal ran a blood-curdling illustration of a greatly

enlarged female hookworm that resembled a diamond rattlesnake more than a worm.

We were told the worm had laid 3,000 eggs a day, but without an explanation of who counted

them.

Alongside the illustration of the voracious monster was that of an emaciated boy teedering

on the brink of the grave.

The journal listed times and places when a representative of the Rockefeller Sanitary

Commission and the Mississippi Department of Health would be on hand to gather fecal specimens

for hookworm tests.

I became so frightened at the prospect that I was constipated for a week.

In the end, my test proved negative, and I could look forward to a healthy existence.

I did the scientists not discover some other deadly menace.

I love it.

...