The Monroe journal. [volume] (Monroe, N.C.) 189?-1965, 1910-08-16
VICTORIES OF PEACE;
OR, RESULTS OF SANITARY SCIENCE.


nowned than war. Milton.
The thunder Of artillery, the battls
clouds, the CHASTITY wounds, the Grim,
soned sod, and the cries and shrieks
Of agony make picture that focuses
and holds the attention paralyzed
with horror. On the other hand, the
quiet, unobserved laboratory worker
as he wrestles day in and night out
with the forces of Nature for the
knowledge that is power, attracts nc
uncommon attention until the gen.
eral educational effect OF time brings
the masses abreast Of the advanced
position long since occupied by their,
then, unknown leader.
The leader with battle background
creates a profound impression; the
leader with scientific acumen passes
unnoticed, but leaves an impression
as lasting as the truth Of which his
life became part. Napoleon is an
example Of the first, Pasteur Of the
second. In 1906 well known Paris
newspaper made a poll Of the French
people and Pasteur was voted the
greatest Frenchman that ever lived.
Such was not the popular estimate
of Pasteur during his lifetime or i'm
mediately after his death.
We have all heard Of Hobson, but
how few know of the less ostentatious
but greater heroism Of Lazear and
Carroll. Fully realizing what only
a few could then realize, and without
the plaudits of the public, they ex-
posed themselves to a greater danger
than than an exploding magazine in
order to test the mosquito origin of
yellow fever. They gave their lives
in the experiment, but, as a result,
1000 lives are saved annually in
Cuba and Mexico alone, the Panama
Canal is being dug, and yellow fever
is no longer a disease that strikes
terror to the heart.
1t is estimated that the attempt of
the French to dig the Panama Canal
cost them $4,000 lives, most of them
destroyed by yellow fever and ma
laria. In 1887, the death rate in the
Canal Zone amounted to the loss Of
person out of 10, or 100 out of ev-
cry 1000, per annum. The hospi-
tails were overcrowded, and it is stat
ed on good authority that the high
death rate was the principal reason
the French abandoned the undertak-
ing. In 1905, when the United
States began work on the canal, the
death rate per annum was So per
1000 of the population. In four
years Col. Gorgas, the distinguished
sanitarian in charge Of health condi-
tons there, has reduced the death
rate to 25 per annum per 1000 of
the population. 1t will be seen that
40 lives are saved in every 1000 Of
the population, and, as there are
10000 people in the Canal Zone,
this means saving Of 1890 lives
annually.
Yellow fever, as has been said al
ready, is conquered disease. From
1850 to 1900 the city of Havana alone
averaged $50 deaths a year from this
disease. Since the discovery Of La
GEAR and Carroll and the application
Of this discovery there has been an
average of not over 4 deaths per year
from this disease in Havana. Vera
Cruz Province, Mexico, that had new
er been free of the disease in fifty
years, has not had a single case Of
the disease in the last four years.
And, as in Havana and Vera Cruz,
so everywhere else that the very sim
pie remedy for the prevention Of this
disease has been applied, it has dis
appeared.
Malaria is another disease that has
yielded to man just in proportion to
the educational effort directed against
this disease. In Italy, one Of the
most malarious countries in the
world, with very general educa-
tional campaign against malaria,
there has been in the last s years a
IS per cent. reduction in the mala-
rial death rate. The average annual
death rate from malaria before this
campaign was 5000; it is now A.
900; 1900 lives are saved each year.
A large number of cities and ma
larious provinces in other countries
have, to varying degrees of effective
ness, adopted anti-malarial measures
with results ranging from 80 per
cent. to an so per cent. reduction in
their malarial death rate. In lsma-
liza, town of 5000, and in Port
Swettingham and Klang, town Of
5000, where malaria affected about
80 per cent. OF the population and
was evidently sapping the life