Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-25
TOPREVENT TYPHOID
Practice of Vaccination Will
Be Extended.
TEST MADE IN THE ARMY
Gratifying Success of Experiments
in Europe.
INNOCULATING THE MEN
Solution of Dead Germs Not Par
ticularly Expensive, and Process
of Manufacture Is Safe.

From the results that have been so
far obtained in the army from vaccnat-
ing against typhoid fever 1t would seem
that the scourge will soon cease to be a
menace to Washington, and the city may
be kept as clear of typhoid as it is of
smallpox.
Although vaccinating against typhoid
is new idea to the average citizen, 1t
has been tried in the army for over a
year, and 1t has been in use in the
armies of Europe for five or six years.
AS matter of fact it is not vaccination
AS we know smallpox vaccination. but
consists of shooting a sterile anttoxin
solution into the arm. The effect is the
same. practically, as vaccination. 1t sets
up mild case of typhoid fever that lasts
couple of days. AT the end of that
time the blood of the patient is full of
the anti-bodies that are found after a
patient has had a real case of typhoid,
fuller. as a matter of fact. than If the
patient had regularly contracted the dis
case, and the subject is immune to fur
Their infection.
How long this protection will last is a
question. Vaccination against typhoid
has not been in use long enough to say
what the time limit will be, but it is
known that victim of typhoid seldom,
1t ever. has second attack, and 1t Is
supposed that the protection will last as
long or longer than the immunity given
by an ordinary attack of the disease.
Innoculation in the Army.
Maj. F. F. Russell, in charge of the
Army Medical Museum, was sent to Eu-
rope to study the disease, and as a result
of his report on returning to this country
board of army surgeons was convened
N
introduce protective innoculation into the
American army. and at various posts
since then men who volunteered have
been innoculated. There were $40 in
noculated at Fort Wadsworth the other
day. Altogether about one thousand cases
have been innoculated, and of these only
one has developed the disease, and his
case was regarded as doubtful, for the
fever developed so soon after innocula-
tion that there was more than a good
chance that he had been infected prior
to being vaccinated
The experience of European armies is
that of the men innoculated there is only
one case of fever against ten among the
unprotected. and the death rate of those
who take the disease is reduced in the
same proportion.
AS the case stands in the army now, in
incubation is voluntary, but i'm time of war
it probably would be made compulsory, as
in the case of vaccination against small
pox. The army has not been able to try
the efficacy of the innoculation against
known infection. That is to say, nobody
who has been vaccinated has volunteered
to drink typhoid germs and see whether
he was proof against the disease. This
test was tried, it will be recollccted, when
the commission that found the source OF
infection in yellow fever was experiment.
ing at Camp Columbia in Cuba. 1t has
been suggested that this would be a good
use to make of condemned criminals, but
civilization does not seem to have pro-
ceeded to that point yet.