Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/374

370 with this disease have been admitted to the Marine Hospital at Savannah for special observation and study. Similarly patients have been admitted to the Wilmington, N. C, Marine Hospital for the study of hookworm infection. Two laboratory officers were detailed with the mine rescue car of the Bureau of Mines to investigate hookworm disease among miners in southern states and lung diseases among Colorado miners, and also to report on the general sanitation and hygiene of mines.

The San Francisco plague laboratory has continued its work of examining rodents for the germs of bubonic plague. It has also made studies on the penetrating power of various gases used in disinfecting ships, on rat leprosy and on the role of fleas in transmitting the plague. At the Leprosy Investigation Station in Hawaii, the bacillus of leprosy has been successfully grown on artificial media. Monkeys have been inoculated with leprosy from human beings, and thus the way has been opened for the development of a curative or preventive serum. Special studies have also been made by service officers on such subjects as the sanitary disposal of night soil; the growth of animal tissues outside the body; the role of oysters in the propagation of typhoid fever; the longevity of the typhoid bacillus on vegetables; and the influence of poisonous gases on health.

During the summer of 1912, plague broke out in Porto Rico and Passed Assistant R. H. Creel was detailed to direct the work of control