Nevertheless, although a young and healthy phagocyte may be so vigorous as to be like a Samson among his microbe enemies, still, as we have seen already, there is a way to defeat and destroy him. Let one of these young phagocytes be launched into blood that has alcohol in it and what is the result? Does he gain courage for the fray? Does he scurry off to the battle ground with the greater strength?

Quite the contrary; his fate is now sealed, for that alcohol overcomes him as a subtle power more deadly than any microbe. It is a toxin which will dull a phagocyte or paralyze him utterly, according as there is more or less of it in the blood.

A trace of alcohol does not rob phagocytes of all power. They may still be strong enough to reach the scene of battle; they may even wrestle with a microbe on the way there; but instead of being strong enough to conquer, they are now weak enough to be conquered. When that condition exists disease microbes find themselves free to carry on their business of toxin manufacture without interruption.

From beer and hard cider all the way through to gin and brandy each drink harms the phagocyte with its alcohol, and the more alcohol the drink holds the more is the phagocyte damaged by it. The table which is given on the next page shows what per cent of alcohol is found in various drinks which are in common use.

In view of this power of alcohol, we realize that when a man raises his glass cheerfully to his lips and drinks to the health of his king or his friend, he drinks in truth to the success of disease microbes in his own body, while at the same time he drinks to the death of his own most faithful bodyguard.

If the owner of a castle had drugged his watchmen on the towers, had bound his soldiers hand and foot, had killed his bodyguard, would he have the right to be surprised when he found his worst enemy within the gates? If that enemy robbed him, or beat him cruelly, or killed him through slow torture, would any one be to blame but the owner of the castle himself?

Protect your phagocytes from harm and they will protect you in time of need. Weaken them through the use of alcohol or any other poison, or through neglect of the laws of health, and you will be as a man who has drugged his watchmen on the towers, bound his soldiers hand and foot, and killed his bodyguard. He who has done all this is sure to suffer when the enemy comes.

CHAPTER XLII

HOOKWORM DISEASE

Although phagocytes save the body from much harm, they cannot conquer the hookworm. Nevertheless a remarkable modern discovery shows how even hookworm disease may be prevented and cured.

The worms themselves get into the body in two ways:

1. Through the skin. They work their way into bare feet that tread upon them; they prick their way into the hands of those who handle them.

2. Through the mouth on things that are eaten or in water that is swallowed.

When they enter they are so young and so small that they cannot be seen except by the help of a microscope.

After they are in the body, they travel hither and thither in the blood stream until they reach the long tube of the digestive canal. They like the small intestine best, and here it is that they earn their name, for they hook themselves to the lining of the tube with their mouths, suck up blood, even eat the lining itself, and finally grow to full size, -half an inch long and as large round as No. 8 cotton thread. As many as three thousand of these have been found in the same person.

When they are really full-grown, they lay their eggs by the thousand. But these eggs never hatch within the human body where they were laid. Instead, they are sent out of the body with the other refuse, and the hatching is done in the outside world.

Later, when the young worms are partly grown (although still of microscopic size), they enter any human skin within reach. If they do not get the chance to do this, they are bound to die without descendants, for hookworms never lay eggs anywhere except in the bodies of living human beings.

The real objection to having hookworms within us is that they suck up so much blood for their own use that the original owner of the blood suffers for lack of it. When this happens we say he has hookworm disease.

Children suffer most. During the time that hookworms are robbing them of their blood they grow at snail's pace and are languid and listless and poorly developed. They have what are called pulsating blood vessels in the neck, with a tallowlike skin. And hookworms cause it all. Indeed, hookworm disease affects nerves, muscles, lungs, blood and circulation, stomach and digestion.

When the worms are outside the body, they live best in warm, moist, sandy soil. Naturally, therefore, the disease is more common in summer than in winter, and far more prevalent in warm regions of the earth than in places that are sometimes wintry cold.

Quite often hookworm disease starts with what is called ground itch. In fact, the spot that itches is generally nothing but the place where the worm pierced the skin and entered the body. Sad to say, in parts of the earth that are constantly moist and warm there are to-day thousands of men, women, and children who are victims of this hookworm disease. But doctors can cure the disease and prevent its return.

1. They give one kind of medicine to kill the worms within the body.

2. They give another kind of medicine to help the body drive dead hookworms out of it.

3. They see to it that refuse which passes from the human body is put where no worms hatching out from the eggs that were in it can ever get into the neighborhood of human beings.

4. They teach people not to go barefoot; not to wear leaky shoes; not to put hands into soil that may hold hookworms, and not to drink water that could have been reached by hookworms.

In all this, scientists are controlled by two facts:

1. To prevent hookworm disease, hookworms and human beings must be kept apart.

2. The way to keep them apart is to prevent human refuse from reaching any soil which may be walked upon, and from reaching any water that may be used for drinking.