The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-16

New York, April 15.-In the three | months ending on the last day of
 March 680 persons died in New York 1 of cerebro spinal meningitis, the myste-
 rious disease commonly known as
 spotted fever" While the exact num-
 Der of cases is not known. the health
 authorities estimate that it was about | double the number of deaths. In | Philadelphia, in a period of two months | and a half last winter, there were twenty-five deaths from a total of l twenty-six cases reported. The disease has continued it's ravages in New York during the present month. | Spotted fever" is no respector of per | sons. One Of the recent victims in this
 city was a prominent railroad presi- | dent and the list of victims is made
 up from all walks of life.
 Public attention has recently been called to the fact that little is known about the cause of spotted fever" by the appointment in this city of a com mission of seven physicians to study , the scourge. In taking this action
 Dr. Darlington, the health commission | CT, has made what is practically an of l hcial admission that too little is known
 of this danger for effective measures
 to be adopted for checking it's pro- gross.
 Last year the deaths from this cause I 1,20o and the authorities of the Board
 of Health anticipate a much larger | total before 1905 is over. similar, though milder outbreak occurred in 1871, 1872 and 1873 reaching its height | in 1872. This has led to a very general | belief that for some inscrutable reason an epidemic usually lasts three years
 and that 1t is now at It's zenith in New York City. The encouragement de-
 rived from this theory is somewhat Iessened by the fact that the disease is spreading into parts of the country where 1t has previously been a stranger that 1t threatens to become endemic and that America will never be free from it until 1t has exhausted all the soil favorable to its growth As a member of the faculty of the Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital
 said recently. Everywhere the rail- road goes, cerebro spinal meningitis is likely to go also and every physician may be fairly certain it will make it's appearance fin his territory sooner or
 later if it has not done SO already" With this encouraging prospect
 ahead, the medical profession has set
 itself to grapple with this compara- lively new form of plague with re- newed vigor. One sign of the in-
 creased importance which is now at tached to meningitis is the creation of the New York commission, the mem
 bers of which receive nothing for their services, though the Board of Estimate
 has appropriated s, 900 for the neces- sary expenses of the investigation.
 Another Is to be found in the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital which embraces in its terri
 tory some of the worst spots from a hygienic standpoint in the city. where the fever thrives more than elsewhere.
 In the past two years there have been
 in the babies and children's wards of the hospital more than 150 cases and there have been at one time as many
 as seven sufferers from the disease. Despite this abundance in New York and the alarm which the epidemic ' created here. there are many prae- titioners of good standing and long | experience who have never seen a case l of cerebro spinal meningitis. It is sig nifcant that men of this character, from whom are drawn the students at | the Post Graduate, have shown an in creased interest in the meningitis pa- tient in the wards and are striving to prepare themselves by observations and study in New York for the time when they will be called upon to grapple with the disease themselves. | It may be remarked incidentally that this Is one more instance of the value of post graduate medical instruction -an idea which the world owes to America. ThaL ii uaI not be so many years bA-