Carbon Tetrachloride Efficacious in Hookworm Treatment A statement from the U. S. Department of Agriculture said recently that evidence accumulated by medical men in various parts of the world provides good basis for the belief that carbon tetrachloride, a cheap and common chemical, is a cure of hookworm in human beings. Recent reports from the Fiji Islands and Ceylon covering thousands of cases show practically 100 per cent. success.
The discovery of the efficacy of! the drug in removing these parasites was made by Dr. Maurice C. Hall of the U. &. Department of Agriculture, who tested it on dogs and even tried out its effects on himself. His results immediately stimulated medical men in many countries to start investigations, and favourable reports are now being received by the department.
In_ the Bogambra prison: at Kandy, Ceylon, a country where hookworm is common, this carbon compound was tried on 14 persons—with marked success. Among them was a condemned criminal who offered himself as a! subject for a thorough test. He was given @ maximum dose of ten} cubic centimeters of the drug, which removed 55 hookworms. Twenty-two days later he was executed. A post-mortem examination showed that all these parasites had been removed. The other convicts apparently were completely freed of; the parasites by much smaller doses. No effects other than slight dizziness and a sensation of weight in the stomach were noticed in the case of those receiving less than ten cubic centimeters of the drug. The prisoner receiving ten cubic centimeters experienced some nausea and drowsiness.
Twelva thousand natives of the Fiji Islands, according to a telegraphic report received in London, have been successfully treated by the same method, a single dose removing all these parasites from 0 per cent. of the patients amd at least 98 per cent. of them from all persons treated. This is the most extensive test of the chemical yet made on human beings.
"The almost universal success achieved gives reason to believe that this method_is far superior to the older remedies," the department's statement says. ''The second of these thymol and oil of chenopodium fas given rise to a number of fatalities, probably because of the variable composition of. different sampies, and thyme) has caused the deaths of some patients. Thus far carbon tetrachloride, which is usually given in capsules, has produced no li effects and does not appear seriously to inconvenience the patient.
"As evidence piles up, 1b seems more and more probable that carbon tetrachloride, which is commonly used as a clothes cleaner, will prove to be a cheap, agreeable and effective treatment for a parasite
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