available, and, in a few weeks time, have them ready and willing to give all they have, even to their lives--and with a smile.

NIGHT ATTACK ON STEGOMY I A

We fought the battle in Panama along the same lines as in Havana. At first we succeeded in failing--from causes that were puzzling beyond comprehension. But one day the yellow fever mosquito bit one of us out in the park, away from houses and instantaneously we knew the source of all our troubles. The infected yellow fever mosquitoes were living in houses near that park, and resting in the vegetation of the park when we thought we had them all shut up with the sulphur fumes in the houses. This had never happened in Ilavana where this type of mosquito had always remained politely in the buildings in the daytime-al though there was plenty of vegetation in the nearby patios. They don't like a bright sunlight, while some other types of mosquitoes are attracted by light.

At once we knew the park must go. We also knew that it would be impossible to get rapid public or official approval for destroying the park. Delay might mean death to many more. So when our chief left to go North, we arranged to remove every scrap of vegetation in the park in the dead of night. In the midst of clearing operations, a policeman appeared. We entertained him. Then another, and still another arrived, until we had an entertainment on a big scale at which more than half of the police force were present. The remainder of the force apparently did not care for our company or were too shy to associate with us roughnecks. Of course, when the last leaf of grass and shrubbery in the park was gone, this yellow fever mosquito which cannot stand bright sunlight, returned to the houses nearby. These were fumigated, and this was the last chapter in the history of yellow fever in Panama.

We received no thanks, but collided with the greatest mountain of criticism any men ever had to face. As one of the fighters said: "The only friend I had left was my wife."

MOSQUITOES IN THE "APPLE PIES"

When you face death daily, there may be many amusing incidents. One of the Spanish sanitary officers reported that we would never get rid of malaria in Panama because the apple pies were full of malaria mosquitoes. It was a question of the English language. What he was trying to say was "pineapples" and not "apple pies." The malaria mosquito was propagating in the pineapple plants located toward the top of the hill at Ancon. Hill-top malaria discouraged that Spanish inspector who had

worked so hard for us in Cuba. This man's courage was Spartan-we laughed at his broken English but admired his good qualities. He served through four yellow fever epidemics with me and later died in his own doorway--receiving the contents of a shotgun as his final reward for enforcing the sanitary code of a town in another southern republic.

MALARIA AND BERMUDA GRASS

The malaria problem which Gorgas undertook to solve at Panama was seriously difficult because we had three times as much rain in Panama as the sixty inches of rain we have each year here in Tennessee. As one man, who had waited thirty-two days for the rains to stop said, he believed there were thirty-two rainy days each month in Panama. Then, too, one kind of rapidly-growing, coarse joint-grass clogged the ditches and caught all of the floating debris which filled many ditches. By constant study, we found that by burning this grass we could produce a strong potash solution which acted as a fertilizer for the growth of a short grass known as "Bermuda." This grass choked out and replaced the undesirable coarse grass. Later-in fact, last year--this same idea was put into useful operation in northern Mississippi and we were able to keep "treated" Bermuda grass alive all winter, while the nontreated Bermuda grasses died.

"How FAR WILL THEY FLY?"

During this historical fight against malaria at Panama, it was necessary to determine how far the local malaria mosquitoes would fly. People laughed at us for undertaking such a task, but the answer was found. Little did anyone think then that we Americans were, at that early date, preparing on the Isthmus of Panama, to win the World War. In 1914, the same flight studies were repeated in our southern States. As a result, our formerly sickly military camps of the Spanish American War were turned into healthful training camps for the American Expeditionary Force. American volunteers went to the battle front from these camps in 1918 with one two-hundredth of the sickness rate which occurred among the American forces in the Spanish American War. You see what Gorgas' efforts meant to the advancement of our country. But again, our efforts had their amusing side. A Spanish laborer who saw the flight studies being made at dawn thought we had gone insane because he saw us looking up in the air at "nothing at all but imaginary spirits."

END RESULTS

With the reduction of sickness at Panama, while the sickness rate remained high in many points of the United States, both health workers

and the press took up the cry, "Why should we be sick? Why should we have so many deaths and so much illness and suffering when at that death hole in Panama the sickness rate is lower than ours?" Consequently, it was not long until the sick rate in State after State began to drop. There were fewer deaths and we began to understand the real value of public health activities properly conducted.

Attempts had been made by American financial interests to build a railroad in Brazil. They had failed three times, one after another, because they could not keep the working forces free from sickness. With the knowledge gained at Panama, this railroad was installed in record time.

You can now understand how the public demand and support for the rebirth of our State and city health departments came into existence. Possibly many of the graduates of this school, as well as those present here today, may owe their very existence to this reduction of sickness and the lessons taught by Doctor Gorgas. Let us fix firmly in our minds that it is solely due to Gorgas' work that many of our parents, and consequently even many of the contestants for the Gorgas Essay Prize have the good fortune to be alive today.

When Sir Ronald Ross (the man who discovered the mode of transmission of malaria) visited the Isthmus twenty-five years ago, he said to

me:

"The trouble with the British people is, it takes us ten years to get a new idea." It has taken Americans thirty-five years to begin to get the idea, while foreigners have adopted and carried out the methods that Gorgas originated on the Isthmus, we, here in the southern States, only began to use permanent malaria control methods within the past year or two.

However, we are now making rapid strides and in northern Mississippi within the trade area of Memphis, forty towns and villages started during the past year to build malaria permanently out of existence. No other State has such a record and it is high time that western Tennessee and its citizens begin to copy the Mississippi plan. To that end you and the members of the Howard-Krauss Society can each play a most important part. America is now calling for high school volunteers on the health front. Will you respond actively?

THE COMMONHEALTH

R. R. SPENCER, M.D.

Senior Surgeon, U.S. P. H.S. and Associate
Professor in Preventive Medicine and Hygiene
George Washington University

V. SOCIAL HORMONES

No one can successfully challenge the statement, uttered nearly two thousand years ago, that: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Everyone knows, too, that when the human thinking machine-the central nervous system--gets out of order, the resultant disordered thoughts and ideas can be just as harmful to an individual as a distorted function of any other organ of the body. Indeed, it may be far more harmful because a very slight disturbance of the brain can not only incapacitate the individual but can make him a distinct menace to society. This is not true to the same extent for other organs. There was a very good reason, therefore, why mental disease was the very first of the major catastrophic illnesses to be recognized as a duty of the state.

All other bodily functions may be in excellent condition, but unless our brains are in good working order, we are no better off than so many vegetables. In fact, some "thinkers" go so far as to say that only a select few ever learn to think and that thinking is the hardest task in the world; that mentally lazy people would rather die than think, and that many of them do! Personally, I am convinced that the latent abilities of the average individual is grossly underestimated. What we really need is the proper environment to bring out the hidden qualities that lie dormant in so many and are simply smothered by unhealthy mental and social surroundings.

At any rate, the development of useful thoughts and the capacity for good straight thinking has become the goal of all good educational systems. Of course, the same goal is basic in education for citizenship in a "commonhealth."

SOCIAL MESSENGERS

"

Our thoughts, when expressed in speech or in writing, become, like the chemical catalyzers sent out over the blood stream in the human body, activators or messengers of powerful influence in the "body politic. Thoughts are our social hormones. Nowadays, over the radio, these horseless couriers of the air, when loosed by people of importance, can

affect instantaneously fifty million highly sensitive cells in our "commonhealth." Was there ever a time when it was more necessary for Mr. Average Man to understand the thought-process? Whence do his thoughts arise? Can he control his thinking? What do thoughts do to him? Has not a patient as much right to ask his physician, "Doctor, how can I control my thoughts?" as he has to inquire, "Doctor, how can I overcome this headache or this hyperthyroidism?" Are not the new situations in society, created by these new and instantaneous methods, of interest to the public health physician and the health educator? Should we not share all our knowledge about the brain and its functions?

WHAT IS THINKING?

Thinking is a very important phase in the biological mechanism of adjustment to our environment. Thoughts, then, are instruments of adaptation. Thinking is a mode of behavior--one of the highest forms. All forms of behavior result from environmental stimuli as we have said in Chapter IV. The impetus to act, to respond to a stimulus without thinking (reflexive behavior) is older than the impetus to think first and then act (reflective behavior). Intelligent behavior is behavior that successfully arrives at goals. Hence; intelligence, the thing everyone rates so high, is nothing but thinking that results in obtaining an objective. Intelligence has also been defined as the ability to meet, understand, and overcome new situations in the environment. Intelligence is said to be problem-solving ability. Yet, it is practically impossible to react intelligently to an entirely new situation regardless of native talent, since there is nothing in one's past with which to connect an entirely new situation.

Under such conditions, we either do not perceive the situation, or we are completely dumbfounded and behave stupidly or not at all. For example, if one meets a stranger who speaks an unfamiliar language, one is absolutely incapable of reacting intelligently to the new word-s timuli. One appears quite stupid in such a situation, until we realize the very great significance of past experiences. Intelligence is not entirely a question of good heredity. Henry Ford is considered a genius of industrial organization and mass production methods. Because of lack of experience, he is generally considered to have been a flop at international relations.

If thinking and intelligence consists of one's capacity to adjust to the environment, then there must be several kinds of intelligence. We may mention at least three general types: