The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-07
SPANISH WAR
 VETERANS SEE
 BIC DIFFERENCE

Close observers of the military en- |campments which are springing up all around Bridgeport these days may have noticed that mosquito netting is used in great abundance around the and in any place generally used by the men. A roll of netting is proy1d- ed for each tent to be hung down when the wall is rolled up. When the walls of the tents are thus rolled up the air circulates freely through them but the mosquitoes, wasps, beetles, June bugs and all the insects poisonous and otherwise that seem to spring up by millions over night, also poster the boys engaged in the war game unless kept out by the curtain of netting. A framework upon which the netting is drawn is also provided for each mans folding cot and special army regulation, rigidly. en- forced, obliges them to use it whether they like it or not. A framework of netting is also carried by the men who act as scouts and on outpost duty away from the main encanpments to be used even in their shelter tents, or pup tents as they are jocularly called by the old timers.
 The present day use of netting IS 8 lesson learned from the experiences of those who engaged in the campaigns of 1898 to 1902 in Cuba, the Philip pines and the tropics, generally. Up until that time the use of mosquito netting as safeguard against the loss of human life from the bites of pois- OnOuS tarantulaS and Othe insects common to the tropics, but quite un- known here, was unheard of. It was proven beyond doubt during the Span isf war that the mosquito carried the of hn Ivy malarial diseases. Several heroic doctors, nurses, soldiers and civilians allowed themselves to be bitten by mosquitoes known to be infected with the yellow fever germ, to test the truth of this theory. Every one of short time and nearly every one of them died as martyrs to their cause. If it had been possible for the quar- termaster's department of the U. s. army to provide enough mosquito net ting for the use of the men at Santi- ago after the surrender of the Span iards in July, 1898, to keep out the deadly mosquitoes infected with the yellow fever germ as they were, thous- ands of lives would have been saved
 In, all probability the famous. round robin of officers signatures (which Colonel Theodore Roosevelt also sign- ed) imploring President McKinley to
 
 States before their ranks were Ndeci- mated by the scourge of yellow jack, would never have been sent The yellow fever camp at Montauk Point on Long Island, where the returned l soldiers died like flies, would never have been heard of.
 l 1.-The use of 2mosQuito netting, to- hgether with liberal doses of crude oil on the swamp marshes and stagnant pools (which are most prolific breed- ing spots for the mosquito) and the use of Quinine as preventatives, have
 made the digging of the great ditch at Panama a poSsi ibility.
 The French fled in terror from the deadly Isthmus as their men died by thousands from yellow jack, and it was freely predicted that our effort would be dismal failure. Colonel Gorgas,s who was placed in charge of the sanitary division of the Panama canal organization, worked miracles l Tn the way of preventing the spread getlc measures and the digging of tie Panama canal has proceeded without a yellow fever scare.
 That an ounce of prevention is the present day use of mosquito netting and those who participated in the spanish war are happy to note that the army of today is so well prepared in this important adjunct of their permanent equipment. It is not too much to predict that in the event of another war, and especially if the troops are sent to the tropics, that this innocent looking mosquito netting | will be the means of saving more lives than any other agency.