Evening star., 1912-09-18
HYGIENE AND SANITATION.
V-STUDYNG DISEASES.
By frederic J. Haskin.

AS a part of the work OF masterins
the microbes which are responsible io'
so many of the worlds ills the scientists
engaged in medical research spend mucn
time studying the diseases they cause
Their efforts to learn how diseases are
caused and to find efficient methods OIL
prevention and cure constitute one OF the
brightest pages in human progress ana
represent a zeal in the cause that has
sent many a brave man to martyr
grave.
| Notable as an instance is the yeho"
| fever crusade. Who that saw the French
fail at Panama because of yellow fever
| or that has witnessed the American Sue
cess there because of it's absence, can
| fail to acknowledge the immense value
that the proof of the methods of propa-
eating the disease has been to humanity?
Here we have run to cover one OF the
worst ills that ever afflicted humanity
and held there simply by the observance
of few simple rules Of sanitation.
disease that won for itself the appalling
sobriauet Of "the terror OF the tropics
has been banished from every community
observing the simple rules that were
worked out in Cuba.
But the world could not be freed from
this scourge except through sacrifice. In
the laboratories OF medical science there
were men who knew what boon mas
terry of yellow fever would prove to hui
manity, and for years and years they
tried to solve its mysteries. Then came
the suggestion that probably the mosqul-
to had something to do with 1t. and Reed,
Carroll and Lazear, acting under the
orders of the War Department. began
their great work of fathoming the mys-
teries of yellow fever. They began by a
process of elimination in their efforts to
ascertain the cause. They wanted to find
they slept with yellow fever patients.
ate with their knives and forks and
spoons and out of their plates. They
slept in beds where yellow fever pa
and, in short went to every possible
length to make absolutely sure that yellow
fever is not contagious or infectious
disease. One after another they proved
and finally concluded that there was no
other way possible to contract it but
through the bite of a mosquito.
And who would let mosquito known
to have bitten a yellow fever patient bite
him? The
Carroll and Lazear doctors con-
Agreed to Be Victims. thew tuee could
not ask any one else to do 1t unless they
themselves were willing to try 1t. SO Car
roll and Lazear, fully realizing the hor-
rors of the suffering the disease entails.
took infected mosquitoes and permitted
them to bite. 1t takes courage to face an
enemy's guns in the enthusiasm of battle
when flags are flying and bands playing.
but here were men, who had none or Inc
inspiring trappings Of battle around them,
willingly permitting themselves to be In
rible diseases. as great heroes as history
knows LaZear died and Carroll recoV-
cred, but hundreds of thousands have
lived because Of their sacrifices.
What has happened in the case of yellow
fever so far as the saving Of life is con-
cerned, has happened in the case of doz-
ems of other diseases. While the lay mind
has not come to as full an appreciation OF
these other triumphS as OF the succeSsful
effort to find the cause and ascertain the
remedy for yellow fever it has been be-
cause it's attention has not been as firmly
riveted on the results of the other inves-
LEGATIONS 1t has been on the success OF
the yellow fever fight.
Take vaccination for typhoid fever, for
instance. Wherever it has been practiced
it has reduced the number Of cases to
about one-fourth the former proportion.
and the number of deaths per hundred
cases to about the same degree. Some
have asserted that the virtual disappear
ance Of smallpox has not been due to vac
cination, but to sanitation. A. observed
in a previous article. any one who has
travelled in Central America knows that 1t
| is not true, for there one sees the same
sort Of sanitation that he might have been
| in England when half of the population
was pockmarked from smallpox.