The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-03

yer along the GulI tulS SuiiiiHoi' 10 .AS necessity, now that our relations wltn the countries to the South of us are growing ever closer, of devoting more American medical science. to the study American medlcan science, to the study of tropical diseases.
 To be sure, American physicians nave made wonderful progress in combattipg the hot climate scourges which used 10 be so snenacing to the United States. To American medical skill and expert ness in sanitation is to be credited the marvellous change wrought Tn the health of Cuba and the Philippines since the Spanish War, and the whole method of fighting fever epidemies has been changed as the result of American in- vestigation. But the work has been largely that of experts and specialists and # Is only now that the necessity of including in the education Of the or dinary practitioner an intimate knoWl- edge of not only Yellow Jack but or other tropical diseases is being appre- viated.
 The vast extent of the British Elm pire. embracing almost every climate and almost every race of man on the face of the globe, has made the lack or such training more fully realized m England, perhaps, than here. TWO years ago the London School of Tropi- cal Medicine was founded as part or the University of London and placed In charge of Sir Patrick Manson, to whom the world owes the discovery of the part played by mosquitoes in spreading malaria as well as yellow fever. The students there can inspect the hospitals of the Seamen's Hospital Society where sailors returning from every part of the world are treated. The value or such instruction in supplying the de- mands for competent physicians m all parts of the British Empire is obvious. There is no institution of this Kind Tn the United States now, but strong effort is being made to endow a chair for such work at the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital.
 The return of the fever-stricken army from Santiago to camp Montauk Poiht' late in the summer of 1898, in con. dftion which shocked the whole coun- try was followed by another invasion of Cuba--this time by medical men and students who then began the task of cleansing the Augean stables left be- hind by the Spaniards. In the two cen furtes that yellow Jack" had been al- lowed to sweep over the island IL nau proved fatal not only to the lVes put 10 the fortunes of the inhabitants ana for the last hundred years or so the city of Havana had never been entirely free from the pest. In the great cpl demtc of 1878 alone. the worst in the history of the disease, 1t Is estimated that the loss to commerce was more khan a hundred million dollars.
 Impossible of accomplishment as might seem the task of changing con dftions which had come to be accepted ns inevitable accompaniments of life in tropical or semi-tropical countries IL aid not deter the men to whom IL was fntrusted. The work was rot accom- nifshed without tremendous loss, now ever. Col. George Waring, who, as the head of the street cleaning department had Transformed the appearance or tnls 1itv. went to Havana to repeat his achievements there. Much had been Hone and much was left to be done when he returned on sick leave to ms home here and few days later died or yellow fever brought with him rom Havana. uUood. General Ludlow, General Brooke ana the other representatives of the United states rested on the result or medical investigations begun as soon as the Spanish flag was hauled down. Yellow fever was discovered to De npread by mosquitoes, without Whose Intermediary assistance 1t is as one nhvsician expressed it. "as communi- rol,Ie as A broken leg" Acting on this knowledge Colonel Gorgas and Major Reid stamped yellow fever out or CuDa' and fighting malarial diseases on the eame principle, reduced the death rate pf Cuba 75 per cent. Six years or m :, nunity from the old scourage followed their work. Then the Cubans, at length free and Independent alike of Spanish raovarnor-G Generals and American medl- naI authorities, found sanitation pore ard .rYelIow Jack" came back again. It's afgort has been a feeble one, however and there is no reason to doubt that tnt rla uue has been definitely conquered IT <s,ra There is reason to believe, too fhat. before long, Panama also Will DO freed from it and the greatest obstacle fo the monster canal removed.
 Associated with Gorgas and Reid IT me war on Yellow Jack" was young graduate of Johns Hopkins University Dr. Lazear. The sciehtlsIs n"u tr,, ,,astt ...s much progress in their work or inVesti ~ratton but the final proof which woul' @onvtnce even against its will a some Nvhat aceptical world of the mosquito e,arnicious activity in spreading th &aver was still lacking. The physlclah had. so to speak, fairly cornereo th inrect at his work and they themselve saN ro doubt of the truth of their the crv IL was necessary, however sac,,re absolute evidence of at least on ~.se where the fever could have Deel contracted through no other agency:
 Tr thIs dilemma Dr. Lazear, aIte carefully secluding himself rom ever Tn0seiDI0 source OI ihAS&tACAA' F~N errn a mosquito that had prevlousl 1,ttten a victim of the plague The Tn -act bit Lazear and in few days late @he young scientist died of yellow feVel srhara is a tablet to his memory a Tohns Hopkins, but the Governmeh s,e@ never recognized the sacrifice whlc -saaa nossible one of the greatest tri .,rsnhs in medical history. The oui %-aelr of this season Is the hrst epl Saragc on the soil of the United State Sn he fought with the knowledge give S5a xvorld by Lazear's death The cor ssdenoe with which the people or n
 ec,,ntry from the first anticipated hh' wictory is in strong contrast to the ar accustomed by previous outoreahs'
 rrhe success which attended the can
 .airn against Yellow Jack Tn Cu1 kas strengthened the determination 4he medical profession to grapple sy' sar,atIcally with the great proolen
 stiIi to be solved in the tropics. TIT enanish war, turning over as one or T
 stIag results the greater part Of IT
 waat Indies and much in the Far Ea
 x tha dominating influence of Vigo'
 northern people, the Boer war an
 st.a steadv expansion of European pow
 ,1 other parts of the Dark Contlnel
 rava brought home to the clVlllz'
 -.a-Id the Importance of healthier COT
 ss.tcS,s in their new possessions and fhe same time have made thls lhpIoN' N vnent possible. It Is. however retharl
 oble that despite the great results a
 complished by sporadic commission