Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-04-13
DANCER LIES I'M
GERM HUNTING
Plainly Shown In Recent Death
Of Oh. Ashley.
NO PLACE FOR THE COWARD

Work of Investigating Diseases Which
Health Officers Must Guard Against
Is Daneerous-Some Cases Quaran-
tine Officers Have to Deal With.
Smallpox No Longer Feared.
The death of DR. Edward F. Ashley,
psychological expert on the quaran-
tine staff of DIR. Alvah II. Doty, chief
health officer at the port of New York,
who was killed by malignant spinal
meningitis, contracted in the course of
an autopsy, throws light upon the
chooses to help defend the public
health against infectious diseases.
Germ hunting has never been safe
profession either in yellow fever
camps or at quarantine stations.
''In this line of work man has to
be an enthusiast said Dr. Doty.
"tearlessness is as essential char
acteristic of the men who work with
me down here as it is of soldiers. Be
fore man is chosen he is looked over
very carefully. with the result that
our staff is composed Of none but pick
ed men.
when a recruit arrives here he re-
alizes the proposition that he is up
against hard work and constant risk
OF contagion that may end fatally.
For awhile the novice. like the soldier
IN his first fight. may be conscious of
his personal danger. But that feeling
never lasts long. If it should quaran-
tine station would be no place for
him. A man soon becomes so bound
up in his work that he forgets the
personal element entirely This is so
not merely theoretically; it is so actual
" in practice"
Diseases which are all in the days
work at quarantine have rates OF NOR
tality ranging from 90 to so per cent.
Sometimes there will be mild assort-
ment OF diseases to be turned away
from the gateway of the country. At
other times the whole energy Of the
department will be aimed against one
enemy. Such case occurred last
summer. when New York was threat
ened with cholera
Night and Day Work.
10 prevent even the mildest cases
from passing the barrier, steamships
We're held up when any on board felt
the slightest indisposition. Until the
cause OF that 1ndisposition was found
the boat was kept anchored in the bay.
Some OF the boats thus held up were
ocean liners carrying a large number
o1 passengers, all of whom were eager
to reach New York with the least pos
sible delay. This meant night and day
work for the doctors. especially for the
oacterio,oEists. for the test for cholera
involves protracted labor besides sew
eral hours for growing cultures
Samples would perhaps be brought
to the laboratory in the evening. The
bacferlologists would start in after din
her and work till midnight In these
emergency cases, after few hours
sleei' snatched at the station itself. the
doctors would start in again at
O'Clock. so that the investigation might
be completed at s. and the co.npluinjng
passengers could be landed after break
fast.
work of this sort. with its constant
enort ana occasional spasnotlic strain
IS not only likely To make the man
more susceptible to disease, but to mn
derinine his health Directly. In some
cases n,an by various methods MAJ
10 considerable extent protect his,
self against the diseases which he has
10 meet. Vaccination will prevent con
ta2!on from smallpox. In all cases
| systematic cleanliness will 80 LONG
way toward preventing infection. But
| the st11cteSt attention to these nrju
clpies will not prevent contagion when
man has to carry sick child ashore
| IN las arms. as he often does
aail Fever Hard to Handle.
| One of the worst diseases the omar
antine officers ever have to deal With
is tyrEns fever. which used to be
called Iail fever. No form of inocnla-
tlon and no prophylactic measures are
OF any avail against this disease. the
germ OF which has never been discoy-
cred The doctor who deals with II
must rely largely on luck and IA strong
constitution. An epidemic of this
scourge struck this city score Of
years ago. at which time TOO cases
We're reported
| Plague is another Of the more dread.
ed diseases. because no inocula ticn
against 1t has yet been proved ence
ave. Smallpox il no longer considered