The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-06-05
REAL HEROES
MERIT HONOR
TWO DOCTORS WHO DIED THAT
OTHER MEN MIGHT LIVE.
WERE MARTYRS.

If ever a pension is justihed-as
much as the Courier-Journal dislikes
pensions in the abstract as a species
OF political bait-it is justified in the
cases of the widows of Mai. James
! Carroll and DR.. Jesse Lazear, says the
Louisville Courier-Journal. The house
of representatives in Washington has
passed a bill granting them S125 each
month.
Their husbands were both connec-
ted with the military service but their
/ deaths while more heroic than those
of many fighting man in battle, were
not due to shot and shell or the
! carnage of war. They died as victims
of yellow fever, which they voluntary
contracted in order that science might
discover whether the disease is trans
missible by other means than the
mosquito known as the "stegomyia.
AS a result of their sacrifices, the
medical profession established beyond
all chance of doubt that the yellow
fever germ is communicated only
through the instrumentality of that
insect. Every conceivable test made
with and upon the two men proved
the scientific fact.
The conclusion so emphatically es-
tablished has been of infinite advan-
tage to the race. 1t equipped science
with knowledge necessary for an ade-
quate and effectual crusade against
yellow fever. 1t enabled the medical
authorities to strike in the right d. |
rection when they had occasion to
combat the dread disease. Undoubt- |
edly through the discoveries gained !
from these two volunteers thousands !
of lives have been saved. From their |
time to the present the warfare against
yellow fever has resolved itself into a
warfare against the breed of mosquito
by them proved guilty. When the
plague infested New Orleans three
years ago it was stamped out primarily
by attacking the venomous insect
which innoculated the human system
when 1t thrust its proboscis into the
flesh of the human victim. Down in
Cuba, where the yellow fever mosqui-
% has resulted in the practical ex-
the insect and the practi-
al eradication of the disease. This
las been accomplished not only by
the living insect or barring
t from the house by proper screening,
tut by filling up stagnant pools and !,
,ther places where it originates and
hereby preventing its propagation
f ever the happy day comes when the
is no more it is conceivable
hat yellow fever plaques will end.
It was brave, superb thing for Car
oil and Lazear to do. At the time of :
heir voluntary offering of themselves
Dr. the exhaustive experiments in
rhich they were to lose their lives, =
hey were highly eulogized. But they :
aceived by no means the applause =
I'D ecomiums they deserved, for it :"
as not so we'll known then as it is =
ow just what a great service they =
erformed for mankind. if ever there q
ere heroes they were. Under the :
rcumstances, If a pension is due to ''
anybody for anything it is due to the -
idows of each Of them. Even such
recognition of their sacrifice is (
eager, tardy as it is. Their memory 4
lould be preserved in marble. At
me appropriate place should be
onument to two hearts that loved
cir fellow men so much that they
ed for them Carroll and Lazear-
csc are the names-should not be al
wed to perish from fame and from
lection.