Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-09-28

appalling, and other armies have sur.
fefed no less. Then came the English
ana the German army surgeons in
South Africa. and the vaccination
treatment for the prevention OF typhoid
was the resuH-a treatment that,
coupled with sanitation, promises to
end the reign OF typhoid in temperate
climes. as that Of yellow jack has been
ended in torrid regions. The phenom.
email record OF the United States army
during the past fiscal year when ty-
phoid was as rare as leprosy, tells the
story of its mastery by medical sci
ence.
NapoIsen's Saying.
Napoleon once remarked that the
first quality Of a soldier is the power
to endure fatigue ana prfvation, and
that courage Is only secondary. Acting
on that principle the military and
naval men Of the world have been try
ing to surround the soldiery with those
conditions that would put them and
keep them In the pink OF physical
shape. It was this same great au-
thority who remarked that he wanted
men, since boys only served to fill the
hospitals and cucumber tho roadsides.
Ill Inc campaign lcdUbuH u AUSISTItZ
he would take none under 20 and there
never has been a campaign freer from
stragglers or sick soldiers. During the
Crimean war, the commander in chief.
Lord Raglan, though in need of re-
cruits. said ne preferred to wait rather
than to have 1000 boys sent him.
1t Is said that the only exception
to the general rule Of military life
that an army loses more men from
disease than from wounds, either in
war or in peace. was that Of the Ger
man army In the war of 1870 with
France. During the American civil
war there were almost exactly twice
as many deaths from disease as from
wounds. There we're nearly five times
as many deaths from disease in our
war with Mexico as there were from
wounds. During the war with Spain
and in the Philippines from May /, 1898
to May /, 1898 there were nearly
three times as many. deaths from ty-
phoid fever alone as there were from
wounds, and more than five times as
many from diseases in general
The restriction of malaria has come
to be an important problem in the pro-
motion Of military health. It has been
asserted that this disease was respon-
sible for the excavation Of the armies
Of Greece and OF Rome and the conse-
quent decline OF those two great ma
TONS In point of fatality malaria is
not such a serious affliction, but 1t so
lowers the resistance to other diseases
which are highly fatal, that It Is be-
ing fought strenuously in the armies
of the leading nations. A striking H.
Illustration of what may be done in that
direction Is afforded by an experience
Of the naval station at Olongapo, Phil
ippine Islands. 1t was decided that the
swan1py land around the station should
be filled in and that the ground should
be cleared so that the mosquitoes
could find mot where to set the soles
of their feet within 200 yards of the
station. A second line Of precautionary
measures came in the shape Of thor
oughly screened quarters. The result
was that instead of 2.214 days Of sick
ness from malaria during the first
quarter of one year, there were less
than 200 during the corresponding
quarter of the following year.
Health Of Armies impaired.
With the improved apparatus for
sanitation in the field. such as incin-
orators, where all human and organic
wastes are burned; with protected wa
ter supplies; and with carefully in
spected food supplies, the health of
men in armies today is better than that
of similar individuals outside the SER
vice. The regulations OF the diet of
the soldier and the sailor has now CIV
Ell them a balanced ration. and one
that tends to keep their bodies in
physical trim
The armies of the world have not
only made themselves freer from dis
ease than they We're before. but they
have cleaned up civilian pest holes Of
disease. What our own troops have
done in Porto Rico furnishes a notable
instance of what has been done and
can be done. Under the direction of
DR.. Bailey X. Ashford an unrelenting
campaign against hookworm disease
has been waged there. and more than
100000 souls have been released from
living death, With the power there
to say to the people that they must
do certain things for the protection of
the health of themselves and of their
neighbors. the island has been prac-
tically freed from smallpox. the sick
rate from all disease has been cut
down to a remarkable extent and the
death rate has fallen off so rapidly as
to put to shame many progressive
communities a. home.
The American army cleaned up Cuba
in way that probably rendered the
Cubans a greater service than the
freedom it secured for them. The
English, the German and the French
armies have done much for disease
ridden communities In Africa. Per-
haps the hardest problem any nation
has in the way of military sanitation
is that confronting England in India
Although there ha. been established in
Liverpool / school for the study of
tropical medicine, and although there
are laboratories in all the principal
cities of India for the perfection Of
ways and means for combating cpl
demic disease in that great empire,
the best efforts that have been put
forth have not succeeded in lowering
the death rate to any substantial de-