The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-10-06
MORE DEADLY THAN BULLETS.

| MORE DEADLY THAN BUIIE =.
FrightfuI Work of the Microbe in the
| Armies of the World.
| There is undoubtedly a widespread
| impression that, in time of war, the
enemy of the soldier is the man he goes
to fight. Even in the army this opinion
appears to prevail, and the inventor of
a really practically bullet-proof dress
would be hailed with joy by any ma
ton, though it is not on record that
the military surgeon is treated with
| that mark of consideration.
The truth is that what decimates an
army is not the bullet, but the microbe.
In the fiercest wars of modern times
only one-ffth of the recorded deaths
could be traced to the fire of the enemy;
the remaining so per cent. were due to
disease. Much of the disease was
caused, of course, by wounds severe or
slight, but small wounds that are often
| fatal in the crowded military camp
would scarcely disable man in civil
life.
Generally when an army invades a
new country it suffers heavily from dis
ease. And no army has such disas-
| trous tale to tell as the British, for it
has been it's fortune to fight chiefly in
countries where white men find it diff
cult to live under the best circum-
stances, let alone the circumstances of
| war. Malaria is the worst enemy of all.
Among the troops in India 40 deaths in
! 100 are due to it. The French troops in
Algeria suffer even more, it being re-
| sponsible for half of all the deaths
there.
But even Algeria is beaten by Flor
/ ida, where 60 United States soldiers die
from malaria to 40 from all other
causes combined. So much more ter
rible is this enemy than bullets or
spears that, in the British expedition
upon the Niger some years ago, among
As white men there were 40 cases of
malaria and 40 deaths. And a curious
circumstance was the fact that not a
single negro of the total of 1853 died
from this cause.
Another great enemy in war is cold.
In the retreat from Moscow it was a
common thing to find soldiers standing
in their hands. Some years ago, col
umn of French troops was overtaken
by snow in Algeria, and in two days
it lost 20S men. But it is not the cold
alone that kills soldiers. 1t is cold plus
want of food. Very few explorers die
of the extreme cold, while on the other
hand hundreds died from it in the
Crimea, although the thermometer was
never very low.
AS an example of what heat can do,
it is recorded that during the Italian
war, 1000 men of the French division
| fell in the ranks on July 4. An army
suffers more from heat than ordinary
| people from being massed together,
| Just as it suffers more from cold
through being badly fed. Indeed,
there is peculiar susceptibility among
crowds to heat; doctors call it crowd
poisoning, and it is especially fatal to
| the infantry of any army.
| In addition to malaria, heat and cold,
the soldier is killed off by cholera,
| " pHOlu lS'Sl oho W anu SOIIc
| figures show what bad time he has
had among them all. The French army
| in the Crimean numbered 100000 men.
| Of these the Russians killed 10000 men.
while disease claimed $4,000. In 1911
1S14th English army in Spain amount
ed to $4,000 men. The enemy succeed
| ed in killing 5000, but disease carried
off $4,000. During the British expedi-
| ton to Walcheren 20 men were lost
! from disease to one from the instru-
| ments of war. And in the sanguinary
American civil war, while $1,000 were
killed in battle, $4,000 died of their
wounds and 100000 from disease. So
that in past years the microbe has GER
tainly proved himself more dangerous
than bayonetts, bullets or shells.
In time of peace the soldier is I'M
usually healthy, and, roughly speak
ing, the health of armies is three times
better now than it was half century
ago. For one English soldier that dies
| now two used to die Is years ago, and
four at the commencement of the
queens reign. And, thanks to
advance in medical skill, India, though
still three times as fatal to the soldier
as England, now only shows one death
to 20 in 1s37.-London Mail.