226 A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI debilitated many residents and spurred a movement for health care reform. Joseph Goldberger’s experiments with prisoners on the Rankin County prison farm in 1914 helped identify the causes of pellagra, a disease that ran rampant across the South but remained shrouded in mystery. Goldberger restricted the prisoners’ diet to the three M’s of milk, meat, and molasses, and this revealed the connection between nutrition and health. There was also a growing tuberculosis epidemic across the South. In response, the Mississippi legislature appropriated $25,000 in 1916 to construct a state sanatorium in Simpson County to treat victims of the disease and study its causes. The hospital admitted its first patients in 1918. Between 1911 and 1913, the State InsaneAsylum added a medical hospital to its mental health facilities. Even with those added accommodations, the facility in Jackson was overwhelmed with patients, reaching its limit of 2,000 by 1925. In 1926, the legislature approved the construction of a new facility in Rankin County. The Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield opened in 1935 and became the state’s main facility for patients with mental illness. The former asylum in Jackson was abandoned and remained vacant until 1955 when the University of Mississippi Medical Center opened at the site. NISSAN Since 2003 when it opened outside of Canton, the Nissan plant has increased its labor force and also created jobs in the surrounding areas. Nissan vehicles are transformed from rolls of raw steel to fully-functioning automobiles. The four-fifths of a mile long Nissan plant opened in 2003 and provides nearly 6,500 jobs for Mississippians. The plant produces about 500,000 vehicles a year, adding $2.6 billion to the state’s economy annually. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY