Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22

| east. 1t is found In China, India. Japan
Sumatra, Borneo. Java. Moluccas and in
Cuba. Vessels carried 1t TO Cuba from
Asia. To quote Prof. Oslcr: 1.-THE NOR
| tally from this disease among the coolies
| of the Malay archipelago is simply fright
| full" Yet. as intimated, no specific organ
\ ism OF the malady has been found The
| period of incubation is probably iong-that
| is, the period eiapsng from the time a
= man is inoculated until the disease mani
| tests itself may be few days or 1T may
be many months. One seldom gets rid of
! 1t entirely. a man may have IL every hot
| season. Then again IL may disappear for
| years, to return finally. Prof. Schedule had
| a patient who had the disease twenty years.
| 1t affifcts more men than women and more
young men than old. II is accompanied by
pains and weakness of the limbs. palpita-
| ton OF the heart, shortness of breath and
| similar symptoms. so that IL renders it's
/ victims peculiarly helpless. Rabbits and
| monkeys iIoculated by the germ which I-u-
| cerda eliminated have taken the disease.
| but the origin remains undisputed. The
/ japanese physicians have given IL much
| study and claim II Cue to the eating of
raw fish. They point to the abolishing of
| raw fish eating in the Japanese navy and
| the subsequent absence of beri-beri
| proof of the theory. But the Dutch physi-
| clans of Java hold that the eating of bad
| rice causes the maiady and bring forward
statistics to uphold their claims. On the
| other hand, beri-beri is contagious and
| thrives under non-hygienic conditions. in
| ships, jails, asylums, slums, etc. Perhaps
/
| new lgh. on its origin when the members
| return to America
| Makes a Mountain of a Man.
| Travellers in China have often reported
! the great number of cases Of eiephantiasis.
| that remarkable disease which makes
veritable mountain of a man, swelling his
| limbs particularly until they are out Of all
proportion to his size. Prof. Patrick Man
| son proved eonclusively that this disease OF
| the Chinese was caused by little thread
| like worms which the mosquito carries
] about from one person to another. inocu-
| lating them, In this country, by the way,
the common crow gets elephantiasis from
| being bitten by the mosquito. This little
worm, the filadia, has several cousins which
are the cause of two or three tropical dis
eases, such the Guinea-worm disease Of
| Africa and the East Indies the sleeping
| sickness of the African negro, and others
| equally remarkable.
There is the flaria diurni which Manson
| found IN 1891. This curious worm can only
| be found in the peripheral blood during the
| daytime, or when the patient stays awake
1t cannot be found at night or when tie
patient is asleep The theory is that il
must go into the inner blood passages at
| night The flarta bancroft exists under
| directly opposite conditions 1t cannot be
! discovered during the daytime. but only a;
night when the patient sleeps. The fflaria
OF the Guinea-worE disease enters its vic
| TINS mouth with his food and having
reached his stomach, refuses to be digested
| and penetrates outward until ii comes to
| the surface of his body under the skin of
which 1t can be felt like a bundle of fine
threads Then 1t works its way downward
giving birth 10 enormous numbers of young
worms on the way, until it reaches the
ankles, when. strangely enough. il yoIun-
| tarfly leaves its host.
Prevalent in japan.
Liver fiukes is disease caused by germs
| which is prevalent in Japan and which re-
suits in an enormous enlargement of the
| liver. One case is recorded wherein the
| liver reached a weight of eleven pounds.
Twenty per cent of the population of GER
tain Japanese provinces are afflicted. There
is another fiuke disease of the bronchial
tubes which is common in parts of China
Japan and Formosa- The unicarie is an
other little worm which helps to make life
interesting for the natives of India. Egypt.
Brazil and the West Indies. 1t impover-
| ishes the blood CT its victims and makes
them weak. Since there is a leper settle
ment in Porto Rico. on the island named
LOUIS Pena, and there are many lepers
IN Manila. the commission win study this
disease. but as its characteristics are well
known it need not be described
Yellow fever under eastern conditions
will also be studied. and the claims of Sa-
nareli to having eliminated a distinct or
ganism peculiar to the disease will be in
VeStigated.
Sanarelli, who is director of the medical
institute at Montevideo, describes the ba-
cillus as a minute. slender, rod-like worm
from to m;crons in length. found only
| In the blood and tissues. 1t occurs in very
small numbers. but produces a toxine of
extraordinary intensity. There seems TO be
| little doubt that his claims are correct. The
prevalence OF typhoid in Honolulu and Ma
Mia will make the visit of the commission
very opportune.
A Reputed Plague Cure.
Of much greater interest. however. will
| be the investigation of Prof. Haffkine'S
reputed plague cure. This is highly inn
portant The official report bubonic
plague for the Bombay district shows a
mortality of 225,000. In Formosa the gov
ernor general reports p to 40 deaths daily.
The disease is making disastrous Roadway
in Hong Kong. Ismalia. Egypt has been
invaded, and although the recent depletion
OF Grand BasS2m. on the African gold
coast, said to be caused by yellow
fever, yet it is now believed that the dis
ease was really the plague. All this in
spite of the fact that the Indian plague
commission, through Prof. Haffkine, seems
to have found a genuinely valuable serum.
Its reliability was proved by the following
| remarkable experiments: Twenty rats
were taken from a ship newly arrived from
Europe. Ten of the rodents We're inocu-
| lated with the Hafkine serum. and with
the uninoculated en- were put in a cage
which already confined a plague-stricken
rat Nine of the uninoculated died and
only one of the doctored rats died. OF the
LOCO inhabitants Of the village of Uran, 426
were inoculated. Seven of these persons
Were attacked with the plague, but all re
covered. OF those inhabitants not inOcu-
lated, twenty-SiX were seized and twenty
four died In Damaun 2,197 persons We're
inoculated. Only thirty-six of these died of
the plague. OF GOES uninocuiated persons,
1.4S2 died. At Lanowli, village of 100 in
habitants, 32a3 persons were inoculated and
seven of them died. OF 81 uninoculated
persons, ffty-eight died there are many
other examples, amounting in all to 10000
persons inoculated.
These are some of the things which the
Johns Hopkins commission viii inquire
into. They will transmit the results of
their Investigations to the home institution