46 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
general knowledge of such matters were given in our public 
schools. The final success of the United States in constructing 
the Panama Canal has often been heralded as more of a biolog- 
ical than of an engineering accomplishment. Other nations 
starting the task failed, not because of insufficient knowledge 
of the engineering problems involved but because of the lack of 
appreciation of the biological phases of the problems of sanita- 
tion and transmission of disase. Huge accomplishments of this 
kind, if they were numerous enough, would convince the most 
skeptical persons of the values in applied zoology, for the most 
of us are influenced by the spectacular. However, it may be 
asserted without fear of contradiction that extension to all per- 
sons of fundamental knowledge concerning animals as agencies 
in disease with means of controlling such relations would stand 
for more, economically, to the nation than any number of spec- 
tacular achievements such as the one just mentioned. 
It is difficult, if not impossible, to place a correct monetary 
estimate upon human life yet the most conservative of figures 
show that the economic loss to the people of the United States 
through what are termed preventable diseases is appalling. 
Many of these diseases do not involve animals other than man 
directly, so it may be claimed that a knowledge of zoology has 
no bearing in coping with them. But on the other hand the 
study of zoology in its relations to problems of sanitation and 
medicine furnishes a point of departure from which these 
topics may be reached in dealing with high school classes. The 
instance of hookworm in its bearing upon the economic prob- 
lems of the South finds direct application at this point. A few 
years ago no one would have guessed that a small intestinal 
parasite could have produced such pronounced direct effect 
upon the economic status of a community as have been demon- 
strated in the case of the hookworm. Thousands of non-pro- 
ducing individuals throughout the South constitute an incipi- 
ent reserve to our economic situation awaiting the application 
of zoological knowledge and establishment of sanitary condi- 
tions to transform them from physical and mental abnormali- 
ties into productive citizens. Outside agencies, such as the 
establishing of commissions for the extermination of such a 
