FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



in the following case : In a certain school two girls were 

 among the most healthy and brightest-looking of all the pupils. 

 These girls later went to college, but were forced within a 

 year to abandon their college work on account of their eyes. 

 The diagnosis of the oculist was to the effect that if these 

 girls' eyes had been examined when they were children and if 

 the defects had been corrected at that time, they would have 

 been able to complete their college education and would not 

 have been handicapped all through life as a result of impaired 

 vision. In China the doctor is paid not for attending patients 

 when sick but for keeping them well. In this country more 

 and more attention is being given to the great work of keeping 

 people well. 1 



B. The County Hospital Movement 



The first county hospital law was passed by the Iowa legis- 

 lature in 1909, and the first county hospital in the state was 

 established in Washington County the following year. Four 

 other states, viz., North Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Indiana, 

 have passed similar laws, and in still other states the 

 desirability of such a statute is being considered. New 

 York has a township hospital law patterned after the Iowa 

 county law. North Carolina is proving to be one of the 

 most aggressive states in the Union in the matter of con- 

 serving the health of its people. Texas, with four counties 

 arranging for hospitals; Kansas, with many counties inter- 

 ested, and Indiana, with one or more large projects on hand, 

 indicate encouraging progress in the movement. The origina- 

 tor of the county hospital idea is Dr. E. E. Munger, of 

 Spencer, Iowa. Like most country doctors he had lost many 

 cases that might have been saved if the country offered a man 

 as fair a chance for life as the city affords. His sympathy 

 went out to those country patients, and their disadvantage 

 oppressed him. He knew that many of these rural deaths 

 would be preventable if there were adequate facilities at hand 



1 The data contained in the several preceding paragraphs were fur- 

 nished the writer by the North Carolina State Board of Health. 



86 



