476 Biology in America 



Cross and local health org^anizations thronghont the country, 

 organized, as best they could, a teuii)orary corps of doctors 

 and mirses, which were sent to points of greatest need. 

 IMeantime data were being gathered by means of a house to 

 house canvas in certain chosen localities, in the effort to as- 

 certain the factors involved in the spread of the disease. 

 Laboratory 'studies were made on the possibility of trans- 

 ferring the disease from man to lower animals and from man 

 to man, but no definite information obtained except as to 

 the dit^culty of the artificial transfer of the disease. Tests 

 were also made of several anti-influenza and pneumonia vac- 

 cines, but with no very satisfactory results. 



These few instances, which could be multiplied many times, 

 will illustrate the work which is being done by the Service in 

 the study and control of disease in the United States. 



In this work it employs not only fixed laboratories, but 

 laboratories on wheels, having two cars, which can be sent to 

 any point for a study of disease in the field, as occasion arises. 



The determination of the cause of pellagra, a disease of 

 faulty nutrition, of which mention has been made in a pre- 

 vious chapter, is largely due to the work of Goldberger, one 

 of the Service Staff. 



When the youth of our nation were concentrated by the 

 hundreds of thousands in army camps, the Service was called 

 upon to protect them from disease in the extra-cantonment 

 areas. Within the camps themselves the army was responsi- 

 ble for their protection, but in the regions about the camps, 

 especially in the towns and amusement centers visited by the 

 men when on leave, the responsibility fell upon the Public 

 Health Service, aided in many cases by the Red Cross. 



Realizing the terrible menace of venereal diseases, and un- 

 der the stimulus of patriotic enthusiasm, Congress in 1918 

 established a Social Hygiene Board for the study and con- 

 trol of these diseases, consisting of the Secretaries of War, 

 Navy, and Treasury and the Surgeons-General of War, Navy 

 and Public Health Service or their representatives, and ap- 

 propriating nearly $2,000,000 annually for carrying on the 

 work. The administration of this act has been largely in 

 the hands of the Public Health Service, which by co-operation 

 with state boards of health in the establishment of clinics 

 for the treatment of venereal patients, by the establishment 

 of an interstate quarantine against infected persons, restrict- 

 ing their privileges of travel from state to state, and by 

 means of a widespread campaign of education has made a 

 splendid start in the battle against these social plagues. 



In the field of industrial hygiene the Service work looms 

 large. When we realize that to change one employee in a 



