The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1913-01-10

play with Johnny just as soon as sh'
heard he had the measles. This wa
J. not very long after Johnny was frs
taken sick, because the electric tele
, graph is. tortoise compared with thu
) way that news trave4s in small com
munity. Just two weeks later Mar.
was taken i'll. Her case was not Xix
Johnny's. Instead of moping aroun,
, somewhat out Of sorts, little Mary ha,
convulsion, her fever was very high
and the eruption when it came out, in
stead of being a good healthy looking
{ red, was a bluish-black discoloratiol
which looked like a recent bruise.
: She had such hard time breathing
that she had to be propped up in the
| bed, and every time she coughed she
cried out with the pain that racked hel
poor little chest. Little Mary's blue
eyes were no longer bright, and one
morning all the pain and suffering
went away-only, Mary never awak-
ened. Mary had severe case of mea-
sizes.
The two cases which have just been
recited are in no way exaggerated
Unfortunately they are of far too COM
mon occurrence. Johnny's received the
infection direct from the little girls in
the harmless games at the party Mary
came to play with Johnny at time
when, according to the researches of
Anderson and Goldberger in the hy-
gienic laboratory of the United States
public health service at Washington
| D. c., the injecting virus is most act
i've. Their work seems to demonstrate
that the infection does not persist after
the fever has gone away. Johnny's
mother was more fortunate than
Mary's. Her child was spared to her.
Malignant measles make many moth
ers mourn.
This is one of the oldest ailments
with which man has been afflicted. In
fact, the word measles" traces it's
genealogy back through the German
measles" and "masern," to the Sans
krit 'masura," a word meaning spots"
The writings of the ancient Arabian
physicians are replete with mention of
this disease. The Romans, who evf-
IDENTIFY regarded it no more seriously
that we do, called it MOBILIZE" which
means little sickness" Time and
again measles was widely diffused on
Asiatic and European soil, and shortly
after the colonization of America it
appeared in our colonies Many are
the quaint records of it's visitations
not in the least interesting of which
is letter which appeared in the Bos-
ton Evening Post, November IL, 1879, !
entitled, "A Letter About Good Man
agement Under the Distemper of Mea-
Giles at This Time Spreading in the |
Country, Here Published for the Bene |
fit of the Poor and Such as May Want |
Help of Able Physicians 1t is signed,
Your Hearty Friend and Servant" and
the authorship is attributed to Cotton
Mather. 1t is stated that this letter
is a reprint of one which DR.. Mather
wrote prior to his death in 1928.
At present the disease is distributed
over the entire habitable globe, from
Iceland on the north to Terre del
Fuego on the south. 1t occurs more
often and more severely In the colder
months, probably because at such
times people are more closely crowded
together under more insanitary condi-
lions. When introduced into peo-
pie who have never suffered from it
before, its ravages are frightful, as
in the case of the inhabitants of GER
ain of the Fiji islands, who upon being
to the infection fell i'll and
lied by thousands, so that it is esti-
mated that 10000 deaths occurred in t
our months. The epidemic ceased
'nly when every person on the islands {
lad been infected. S
During the year 1910, the death rate {
rom this disease in the states of {
Rhode Island and North Carolina were t
2.6 and 27.1 per cent per 100000. In /
he same year the death rate per S
100000 from measles in Pittsburg, Pa,
vas 33.1; Providence, R. l., 31.9 Kan L
as City, Mo-, 2S.4; Lowell, Mass, 2S.1; h
Albany, N. Y, 23.9; Columbus, O., 1856; i
Buffalo, N. Y, 22.1, and Richmond, t
"a, 211. p
The death rate among those attacked
aries from 5 to 35 per cent. If it is o
that the death rate is 10 per f
ent and the number of deaths from it fl
1 the United States during the year p
$40 was 1000, then it would follow n
nat during the year at least 10000 "
hildren suffered from the disease is
1hen it is considered that perhaps 80
er cent of these children were Of s.
ehool age, and that the disease oc- s.
ire most often during the months of is
,hool attendance, then it will be seen b
lat $4,000 children were kept from pt
,hool from six weeks to two months b.
4 account of the measles. Leaving p,
1T of consideration the death and suf- k
ring which was produced in this way b.
is Is serious economic loss. I'll
Measles is frequent accompani- oh
ent of war, or any other occasion in