Evening star., 1912-07-17
AMERICAS GREAT ENDOWMENTS,
The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission.
BY Frederic J. Haskin.
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.

In the two years of it's active life the
Rockefeller sanitary commission has
brought health to the bodies and happi-
ness to the minds of more than 10000
persons who were the victims of hook
worm disease. Differing from other en-
dowments in that the commission began
it's existence with a fund Of $1,OO0,OOJ
donated by Mr.. Rockefeller to be expend-
ed for the eradication of hookworm dis
ease in the United States, the work Of
at an annual expenditure of 100000, the
money has been made to work more rap
idly and more effectively than any other
philanthropic endowment in history.
Not only have more than 100000 per-
sons been treated for hookworm disease.
not only have more than 10000 persons
been brought into a higher and better
life, but the entire public of nine states
has been educated in the essentials of
sanitary science. When the work Of the
Rockefeller sanitary commission is done
and the 81 100000 is gone the states in
which the fund has been expended will
carry on the work, will spend much more
than 100000 a year, and will not cease
until they approach a sanitary ideal,
That the work of the commission has
been done altogether in the southern
states is due solely to the climatological
circumstance that hookworm disease is
not prevalent north of that degree Of
latitude corresponding roughly to the
courses of the Potomac and Ohio rivers.
That these nine southern states had such
climate as to invite the ravageS of the
hookworm was indeed a calamity, but
now that sanitary science and business
administration have struck hands these
same nine states may yet come to look
upon the hoOkwOrm as a blessing in dis
guise, for it has given to them the first
thorough and systematic effort to bring
about scientific sanitation in rural COM
munities ever undertaken in this country.
4
In the year 1911 the Rockefeller sani-
tary commission expended $14S,OOO The
nine states ex-
The Two Carolinas pended in the
Present Many Cases. naign $4,000
In those nine states 140,37s persons were
treated for the disease The work in the
present year is proceeding much more
rapidly. and by the end of 1912 it is safe
to predict that full 100000 persons will
have been emancipated from the blighting
slavery Of this parasite. In South Caro-
lima. for instance, in one month this year
more cases of hookworm were treated
than in the whole of last year. In North
Carolina in this year more than 5000
persons have been examined and more
than 1900 have been treated for the dis
ease.
Victims of hookworm disease suffer in
proportion to the heaviness of their in
lection. Some persons have the disease
who never suspect it, the only symptoms
being lassitude, lack of endurance and
frequent headaches. Others who arc
heavily infected are SO physically and
mentally debilitated that many of them
have been known to lie in bed for years
and years. The disease is rarely fatal
but 1t Is an enemy of strength. and. there
fore. renders every one Of it's victims more
liable to attacks from other diseases. In
fection being usual in childhood, in bad
cases the growth of the body is stunted