The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-04
SICKNESS IN PORTO RICO.
Twenty-seven Hundred soldier. Down
With Malarfs

WIN Malaria
Copyright 1895 by Associated Press.
Ponce. Porto Rico. Sept. 27.-It Is the
well-grounded and almost unanimous
opinion OF the medical stan of the
American army in Porto Rico thai the
condition of the volunteer forces here
necessitates their removal north.
Sickness is increasing and has been
increasing during the past three weeks
at an alarming rate. To-day the sick
report shows over 200 in hospitals or
In quarters. out Of a total command OF
10000 men: that Is, over rs per cent. of
the troops are on the sick list. This.
however. does not mean that there is
an effective strength OF $500 men. The
soldiers discharged from the hospitals
as fit for duty are in nine cases out of
ten incapable of service. and IL ordered
OF duty are almost invariably back in
the hospitals within . few days. The
medical officers have found that the
convalescents do not, and seemingly
cannot, recover their strength in this
climate and for this reason are being
sent north as rapidly as possible. several
hundred leaving every week. To-mor-
row over 500 will go on the OLDHAM and
the Relief.
IL is a significant fact that there is
a disparity the ckness in the
volunteers and regular commands. In
the two regular infantry regiments, the
18th and 18th, the sick average Is only
about 10 per cent. while In the volun-
teer regiments, the 9Th Massachusetts,.
LIST New York engineers. 4th Ohio, 3rd
Illinois, LIST Kentucky, 3rd Wisconsin
and 18th Pennsylvania, IL averages "a
per cent. In the last named two. where
the conditions are the worst. the sick
report to-day shows a percentage of 46
In the 18th Pennsylvania and AZ in the
Bird Wisconsin. over half Of these two
regiments, which, with the LIST Ken
lucky. comprise General Ernst's bril-
gade. are unfit for duty. and yesterday,
when General Ernst moved his head
quarters to Aibonito. on the summit
of the mountain range. IL was found
that 1t woul be impossible for the bril-
gade to follow. The command is pros
trate where IL is. Undoubtedly the
wide disparity between the percentage
Of sickness I'm the volunteers and reg
ular organizations is largely due to the
fact that the latter are better able to
take care of themselves.
Most of them are veterans who UNDER
stand the rules of health in camp and
their officers from the very outset have
enforced with unerring energy the SAN
itary regulations so necessary for the
preservation of health. But more than
that. the regulars are making soldering
a business. They did not enlist for the
war, Dut IOT i've ytdTS, anu tnty lODh
upon their assignment for service in
Porto Rico philosophically n make
the best of the situation.
The volunteers, on the other hand, en-
listed for two years, but with the al
most universal expectation that they
would be mustered out when the wal
closed. Almost to a man they desire to
go home, and ever since the protocol
was signed they have lived i'm the daily
hope of being recalled. For days they
rave talked of nothing else. Homesick-
ness destroyed their spirits and made
them easy victims to the malarial eli
matte conditions. 1t is said that some
Of them who did fall sick naturally. ac-
tually exposed themselves to the wet. or
ate freely of tropical fruits, despite the
regulations, that they might become i'll
and be sent home. Some. it is alleged.
even feigned sickness and quite a num-
her OF these succeeded in their designs.
The other day a number Of men from
one of the regiments who had been or
dered home as convalescents. came into
Ponce miles ahead of their wagon train.
singing, laughing n making merry
at the prospect of their release. Some
were college athletes. They appeared
to be more capable of service than hun
dreds of the soldiers who remained, and
one of the regular army officers in
Ponce, upon looking them over. sug-
gested ironically that they should stop
at New York on their way home and
pick up a few prizes for throwing the
hammer. putting the shot. etc, at the
Caledonian games.
The weekly health report of a week
ago shows 365 cases of typhoid fever,
sos cases of malaria, one case of small
pox and 1.450 cases Of climatic fever,
diarrhoea. etc. Since then about 300
cases have been added to the list.
Tho worst feature of the situation Is
the steady increase in the number of
typhoid fever cases, which to-day
reached over 400. For a time II ap-
peared probable that the typhoid fever
i'm the army, most of which Is alleged
to have come from Camp Thomas and
Camp Alger originally. would be
stamped out. but about three weeks ago
new cases began to appear at an
alarming rate. Major Snowden and his
associates do not believe that there is
a new source of contagion, but rather
that the cases are due to infection from
old cases.
A few days ago the whole city of
Ponce narrowly escaped being utterly
depopulated by a typhoid epidemic.
Some of the men of the LIST Kentucky,
who are camped near the aqueduct
which carries the water supply of the
city. i'm order to secure good water close
at hand. tapped the aqueduct. They
broke through the masonry and for a
while they were hosting water in buck
cts from the aqueduct. Fortunately
Major Snowden discovered the manhole
while on a tour of inspection the next
day. He was Mortified at the discovery.
Typhoid fever existed in the LIST Ken
lucky and the water supply of the city
might have been contaminated with
typhoid germs. He ordered the man.
hole stopped Immediately.