UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 359 



vestigation has likewise been made of the hygiene and sanitary ar- 

 rangements of railroad coaches and sleeping cars. The question of the 

 dissemination of malaria by mosquitoes has been another productive 

 field of research. 



Closely connected with lines of work already outlined, is that of the 

 leprosy investigation station on Molokai, Hawaii. Here, with unlimited 

 material at their disposal, the director and his able assistants are ma- 

 king careful studies of the lepra bacillus, with the ultimate ambition 

 of producing some means for the prevention and cure of the disease. 

 A good example of the thorough and painstaking study of epidemic 

 disease which characterizes the service work, is the exhaustive research 

 made by Stiles of the distribution and results of hookworm infection 

 in the south and especially in the rural sandy districts of Georgia and 

 Florida. What Stiles did for the south, Ashford and King did for 

 Porto Eico, and the result has a large economic, social and sanitary 

 value in both places. 



Eelief stations of the service are divided into four classes. The 

 first-class stations, numbering 23, consist of a marine hospital under 

 the command of a commissioned officer. Among these is included the 

 tuberculosis sanatorium at Fort Stanton, N". M. After the subjugation 

 of the Apache Indians, the old army post at Fort Stanton, which for 

 forty years had been a frontier protection for ranchmen, was no longer 

 necessary, and in 1896 it was abandoned. For three years the post was 

 deserted, except for the wild desert prowlers, and sagebrush and decay 

 replaced the busy military life which had known it so long. In 1899 

 the property was acquired by the Public Health and Marine Hospital 

 Service, and again the martial spirit took possession, and once more 

 the stars and stripes floated over the parade ground, fanned by the 

 health-bearing breeze of the New Mexican plateau. But the foe to be 

 conquered under the new regime was not the fierce red warrior whose 

 'merciless and invincible spirit had been supreme against the Spaniard 

 and the American for three hundred years. The new foe, more deadly 

 and terrible by far than the old, was the silent and merciless white 

 death, the relentless destroyer of thousands, the plague of tuberculosis. 



In situation Fort Stanton is admirably adapted to its present pur- 

 pose. At an altitude of 6,200 feet, it has winter snows, and moderate 

 heat in the summer. The reservation includes about forty-five square 

 miles, and has resources which, when fully developed, will go far toward 

 making the institution self-supporting. Natural water power is avail- 

 able. Two thousand cattle can be pastured on the range, which now 

 supports almost that number of beef cattle, besides a large dairy herd. 

 Poultry raising will soon supply an abundance of turkeys, chickens and 

 eggs, and hog raising is another industry which promises much. 



The daily number of patients averages about two hundred, under 

 the care of seven medical officers. Sixty attendants find employment 



