The Washington times., 1912-09-20
EXHIBITION CARS
SHOW HOT FIGHT
AGAINST DISEASE
Rural Sanitation and Battle
Against Bubonic Plague
Illustrated.

Health demonstration cars from three
States are hurrying to Washington to
form a part of the International Exhi-
bition on Hygiene and Demography
The cars will not be taken to the ex-
hibition hall at Seventeenth and b
streets northwest, but will be kept
standing in the Union Station yards,
where, like the rest of the exhibition,
they will be open to the inspection of
the public every day till October 4.
The cars are expected here today. One
comes from California, one from Louisi-
ana, and one from Maryland. The Cali
fornia and Louisiana cars contain novel
lens Of health and sanitation in rural
districts. These cars are in charge of
DR.: William F. Snow, secretary Of the
California State board Of health, and
Louisiana state board Of health.
The car from Maryland Is sent by
the Society for the Prevention of Tu-
berculosis of that State.
they will make a total of fifty-six ex-
hibits located here during this week.
Bubonic Plague Exhibit.
One Of the new exhibits shows the
work which the United States Public
Health Service is now doing toward
stamping out the bubonic plague.
The exhibit shows that the plague is
primarily transmitted to human beings
from sick rodents by feas
Two completely furnished houses, with
sewer mains. sidewalks, and yards, are
displayed in miniature. The .irst house
SHOWS little models of rats comiry into
the dwelling from the sewer mains,
ploring the water-spouts, Investigating
the open garbage barrels nesting be-
TWEEN the skins Of the floors and walls,
and running UP and down the chin
The second structure IS "rat-proof"
house.
Another feature of the Public Health
services exhibit is section of build
In San Francisco. with the original rats
caught about the premises stuffed and
made at home in their quarters
The Public Health Service displays
some fifty models Of rat-traps.
Vaccinate Against Plague.
A further exhibit shows that 1t is now
possible to be vaccinated against the
disease. A chart has been prepared
giving the measure Of safety thus as
unvaccinated the percentage Of infec.
ton on the outbreak Of plague Is now
~ per cent of the total population
while the proportion of deaths to those
which occur under even favorable SAM.
tary conditions, compare with similar
percentages among the vaccinated of L.
per cent and 23.9 per cent, respectively
The bubonic plague has spread to the
California ground squirrel, which, &C.
cording to the exhibit, Is now the chief
natural reservoir Of the disease in this
country.
The entire Western two-thirds of the
country is shown to be honeycombed
with the burrows of these and closely
related animals.
Already It is said that the service IA
at considerable expense to maintain a
squirrel-free zone about San Francisco
and other Pacific coast cities, in order
to keep the rat population OF the cities
from being reinfected with the disease.
That "fatherleSs frog developed
chemically by Prof Jacques Loeb, o.
the Rockefeller Institute of Research
is the exhibit around which the larges
crowds gather at the exposition IN tn,
Red Cross building. Prof Loeb. wht
first became famous at the University
Of Chicago, went from there to the Uni
versity of California, and then bacl
across the continent to New York. Thi
frog was developed from the egg Of tn,
female by chemical means. ard IT
growth 10 life is the one successful ex
pertinent along the line of ''partneno
genesis"
While visitors are much interested IL
this orphan frog-so to speak-its growtl
to life has not aroused the fury of dis
cussion and debate which Prof. Loeb