Arizona republican., 1910-05-09
Rewardinq a Hero.

senate has voted in favor of reward
 ing a real hero" of the Spanish war
 The house is said to favor the bill
 also. and it is probable that before
 many days the proposed reward will
 have taken the definite form of law
 pension of sl25 month
 The senate bill proposes to pension
 John R. Kissinger of South Bend. In-
 diana. MT. Kissinger was. one of two
 private soldiers-the others name was
 John J. Moran. and both were from
 Ohio-who subjected themselves to an
 experiment to determine the theory
 of transmission of yellow fever by
 mosquitoes. Both took the yellow
 fever from the mosquito bites, and
 been paralyzed since his illness. The
 experiment was conducted by three
 surgeons of the army: pr. Lazear.
 Dr. Carroll and Dr. Reed Drs Lazear and Carroll afterward caught the fever and both died.
 The action of these two young sol diers who bravely offered their lives in the interest of science has been justly described as one of the most heroic sacrifices made in the Spanish war. Dr. Reed talked the matter over with kissinger and Moran, explained f,,Il,, tba dapvorS and sufferipv in
 volved should it prove true that the mosquitoes did transmit the fever and seeing that they were determined, of- fered them d money consideration. According to pr. Reed. Both young men declined to accept any reward, making it indeed their sole stipulation that they should receive no pecuniary reward. In my opinion this exhibi ton of moral courage has never been surpassed in the army of the United States"
 And pr. Reed is right There are multitudes of men who have the courage to take extreme risks in bat tie. But the courage to assume quiet ly, in the retirement of laboratory, the danger of death from yellow fever, is finer quality of bravery than the battlefield requires. It far surpasses Napoleon's test of a sol diers mettle-his willingness to get up at o'clock in the morning and go into battle.
 The widows of Dr. Lazear and Car roll are drawing pensions of s125 d month. and it is but simple justice that the same pension be paid to Mir. Kissinger. The record of the Kissing CT case, as brought to our attention, i does not disclose what became of MT. | Moran. and we have forgotten. we are sorry to say. These pensions. and more. were earned by the brave sol | diers and the brave surgeons.
 Fortunately for humanity. the ex- periments of which Kissinger. Moran. Lazear and Carroll were the heroes. marked one of the greatest advances in medical science in modern times. It was clearly proved that yellow fever is transmitted by the mosquito, and this definite information has saved thousands of lives. With this knowledge in their possession. tho American surgeons proceeded to de- rsx-x NHr lfs in Han .ln with the mosquitoes they destroyed their foul breeding places For, the first time in history they made Ha- vana free from yellow fever. and provided the Cuban government has enough sense and energy to maintain the sanitary standards set up by the is permanently free from the yellow fever scourge.
 The same information enabled the health authorities of New Orleans to stamp out the last yellow fever epi- iemic in that city. Although it had been definitely established that do carry the disease, New Orleans had put off until oo late the work of guarding against the mosquito pest. But when the fever appeared the authorities promptly expended great ,ums in providing screens for all isterns rain barrels and other breed ng places of the misquito; they com ,elIed all householder to screen their iouses and took ,reans to kill the i; mosquitoes. The epidemic was soon lnder control. ii
 And all the world is familiar wita' II he brilliant record of our army sur S cons in Panama With the infor- i nation gained from the Havana ex- 'eriments. they destroyed the mo- II quito breeding places on the canal. , O far as possible. they provided ade- c uate drainage. and they furnished all ' he laboeers with screened protectioslf-- rom mosquitoes in their sleepingl uarters. As result Panama has