IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 21196, 24 September 1930, Page 6

IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE.

THE FIGHT AGAINST HOOKWORM. Research sometimes takes queer turns. The man who sets out to cure the ailments of a dog finds himself the benefactor of an entire race. That is exactly what happened in ,the researches of Dr Maurice C. Hall, of the United States Department of Agriculture, whose work on the carbon tetra-chloride treatment of hookwdrm disease was recently eulogized by Dr S. M. Lambert as “the greatest contribution to tropical medicine after the work of Reet et al, and Gorgas on yellow fever.” Dr Lambert, a field director of the Rockefeller Foundation, is in charge of the direct application of this treatment in the Fiji Islands. “This scientific evaluation of the carbon tetrachloride treatment,” said Dr John R. Mohler, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, “is another striking example of what often happens in the field of scientific research. In this particular instance, Dr Hall was investigating the ailments of dogs, with a view to finding remedies. He discovered the value of carbon tetrachlorides as a drug for the removal of hookworms and incidentally learned of its value to human beings. What was originally a byproduct- of his scientific investigation developed transcendant significance.”