El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-08-06
RENE BACHE'S BUDGET
ZOOLOGY Of DISEASES
A NEW METHOD IS ADOPTED FOR STUDYING
DEADLY MALADIES
Keeping Tab Creatures Which Act as Distributors of
Human Ills-Black Death Likely to Make Serious
Trouble For Us Before Long Of Solv-
ing the Cancer Mystery.

! germs of the disease in beef soup. and
then killing them by heat, the resulting
fluid being administered by hypodermic
| injection This IS a matter of extreme
Importance, inasmuch as the malady in
question is, at the present time, threat
| en1ng 20 Tavage OIT own country.
| Our government, during the last fiscal
| Year, spent S650,000 in fighting the
| plague on the Pacific coast. and within
the next II months it will expend about
$I,UOO,0O0 for the same purpose. From
this fact it may be judged that the situa-
tlon in regard to the bqfbonic disease
or Black Death, as it used to be called
In the United States Just now is far from
cheerful, notwithstanding the efforts of
the health authorities to minimize alarm
on the subject.
; Worst on Pacific Coast.
The truth is that this most dreaded
and destructive of all h7rman maIadies
seems to have obtained a secure foot
hold on the Pacific coast, where small
epldemics of it have broken out in sew
eral of the larger cities within the last
three years. But the most serious fea-
ture of the situation lies in the circum-
stance that the bubonic infection has al
ready become widely spread among the
rats OF the towns and the ground SOUR
rels of the rural districts in that region.
The plague is rat disease primarily
1t Is conveyed to human beings las we'll
as to ground squiTTels) by the flea 4
EIea bites a plague-sick rat, and, later
on, it bites a man, thus inoculating the
latter with the deadly infection
1t is only through quite remarkable
good luck that the malady has not al
ready made its appearance at our ~rinci-
pal Atlantic seaports. This is practical
ly certain to happen before very long. and
the public health service (which has its
headquarters at Washington has had for
some time past a complete plan of cam
palgn mapped out to meet such an en-
Urgency.
Spreading the Plague.
Immense quantities of grain and 9TH
er merchandise are constantly being ship
ped from San Francisco and other Pacific
coast ports to the east Rats are often
transported with such merchandise. as in
voluntarily passengers, hidden in grain
sacks, or otherwise. Let one or two
plag ue-slck specimens be delivered in
New York, and the metropolis would be
likely soon 10 have an epidemic on its
hands-the first warning of the outbreak
being afforded by the finding of laroe
numbers OF dead and dying rats about
the wharves and IN the streets.
MI A1l1lu2 Expensive.
To fight the mischief, if it once cot
started in New York, the municipality
would be obliged to wage a war of ex-
termination against rats. This would in
Volve an expenditure of many millions
OF dOllars-much money being required
not only for the wholesale trapping and
poisoning of the animals, but also for
the rat PROBING of sewers, houses and
particularly buildings used for the stor-
age OF food supplies. Experience has
shown that the only way to get nd of
such veTmln is to deprive them of food
and hiding places.
Bubonic plague depends for its distri.
button among human beings on two ami
mals-the rat and the flea It serves
very stTlhngly TO illustrate what might
be called the modern geological aspect of
diseases. The working laboratory of the
public health service, in Washington. is
today, indeed, sort of station for ma
tJIral research, and an official zooIogist,
DR.. Charles w. Stiles, is in charge of one
OF It's most important departments.
Animals Blamed
Nowadays. when the study of disease
Is begun, suspicious are always enter
tanned against one or more animals, as
possibly accountable for the trouble di-
rectly or indirectly Just so, for exam
pie, the African crocodile is charged with
maintaining in its blood the parasite of
sleeping sickness" which the dreaded
tsetse fly latter biting saurian, as it
aneged1 conveys to human beings. SINH
hrly, IN our own country, the malignant
anemia, which affhcts hundreds of thou
sands OF people in the south. has been
absolutely proved TO be due to a, minute
'hookworm" that bores through the skin
of the feet and, making its way to the
lntestdnes, establishes itself there as
bloOdsucker
Many New Diseases.
Such problems Keep the government
health authorities moving. As soon as
one is solved, another turns up-as, for
instance, IN the case OF the mysterious
spotted fever" which has been maki1g
so much trouble lately in the mountain.
ious regions of Montana and adiacen.
Rocky Mountain states. 1t is an entirely