Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-20

exhibited so simple a thing as rubber
oand The natives had never before
seen anything that might be stretched as
may rubber band. They considered IL a
symbol of witchery and Meyer felt that
he might be burned at a stake or he in
some other effective way dispatched at
any moment.
1t was IN Habarowsk, Siberia. a lawless
frontier town. that the explorer was one
night set upon by a band of robbers.
He was new to the region and had little
Idea as to what he might expect. As he
approached his lodgings he was attacked
by three men. They threw a cloth over
his head and succeeded in pulling him to
the ground. There he was being beaten
with stones into insensibility and prob
able death when he succeeded in releasing
one hand and getting his dagger. This
he thrust deep into the stomach OF one
OF his assailants and slashed viciously AT
the others. The Chinaman Is not the
merry hand-to-h hand fighter that the
American is and the result OF the battle
was that the robbers were soon put to
flight. The next morning the body OF an
other traveller who had shown less PROV
ess was found dead near tho same spot.
There is DIT. Joseph Goldberger OF the
public health service. His especial
and infectious diseases to their
lairs and ferreting out their Sc
crets. that the medical world may know
the batter how TO fight them. In the line
has himself contracted many OF the dis
eases that he studied has wrestled with
them for weeks Cf rerilous illness and
has finally recovered from them full OF
a knowledye cf their WAYS. The first
Of the real bad diseases that he econ
tracteG was yellow fever, and IL was a
close cali fer MIN. A little later he be-
came absorbed in a study OF dengue.
tracked it 70 its lair. contracted il, sur
vived Il and told the scientific world
some things about II that We're previously
unknown. Typhoid he studied through a
similar experience. Then came typhus
fever. the little understood, and with IL
the public health official Went to the mat
From Il ne survived. with probably the
narrowest mrgin OF them all, and of IL
ne found out the big secret that had
eveded science through the centuries.
Typhus fever had occupied the spotlight
at various times and under various
names 1t has been called ship fever and
has run through many vessels company
most disastrously. As prison fever il has
resulted in the death Of many thousands.
of soldiers in all the wars that have led
to the holding of great numbers OF cap
tives Libby prison. in the civil war
knew Ii we'll and n brother OF George
Washington died OF it in the revolution
and with spotted fever. The manner OF
its transmission was established by DR..
Goldberger.
Two years ago this fever was raging in
the City of Mexico. simultaneously
three expeditions from the United states
were sent into that city to study TX. one
was from the University OF Chicago. one
from the University of Ohio and one from
the federal public health service. Dr.
Goldherg.r ana Surgeon John r. Ander-
.o6 Ia tor
men went into the affected portion OF
Mexico City and studied the question
first hand. The Transmission OF spotted
fever by the tick had just been estao-
lished and this served as a working by
pothesis in attempting to learn the
method of transmitting the typhus-
Eventually DIR. Anderson and DR.. Gold
berger rather conciusively proved that
the body louise bore the disease from one
person to another, and its spread where
numbers We're held in close quarters was
thus explained. These little body insects
were captured by the surgeons from the
placed in little glass tubes and most
carefully cared for until they could be
allowed TO bite monkeys. that the result
might be observed. So important was IL
that these duly exposed insects should
be kept alive that the surgeons carried
them III glass tubes strapped beneath
their arms that the temperature might De
ken right for their welfare.
1t was in handling these insects thar
Dr. CIolLerger came GOWN with the
DISEASE OF the two other expeditions In
Mexico City. each contained a man who
became affected. OF the six men who
made up the three expeditions, three
came down with typhus. or the three
two died. DIR. Goldberger was the only
man getting the disease who survived IT,
The risks run and the sacrifices made
will probably result in the saving OF
million lives before the end or the pres
ent century.
Copyright, 1918. by W. A. Du Puy.l