El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-11-28

WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. Is
NA/ In every war hitherto, dis
w eases have killed more men
than have been slain in battle. But
it is not going to be so in the great
conflict now in progress; for science
armed with new knowledge, has en-
tered the field, and is prepared to
fight the germs which are justly
dreaded as destroyers Of armies.
Take lockiaW for example. rms
malady. so extremely fatal, mas already
made its appearance among the troops
OF the allies. But it viii be quickly
checked, because the surgeons have
newly found out what causes it, ana
they are provided with a ready pre-
ventive They know that the germs
OF the disease are carried in the in
testines of the horse, whose droppings
distribute the infection.
Horse Furnishes Remedy.
II the germs find their way into
wound, lOckjaW is likely to follow. But
oddly enough, as it might seem-the
horse itself is made to furnish the cure.
Through a filter is strained a culture
OF kthe microbes, which are thereby
eliminated. the fluid thus purified con-
tanning only the specific poison which
jected in repeated doses into the veins
of a horse. Then, after a while, a
quantity of the animals blood is drawn
off into a glass vessel, and the Watery
lowed to settle to the bottOm) is the
'antitoxin." HThe French and British
soldiers are now being inoculated with
this preventive serum on wholesale
Is Shaped Like n Pin.
The bacillus of lOckjaw Cor tetanus)
has the shape Of pin-the head con-
tanning a spore, which is thrown off
like a seed for the purpose Of repro
duction. Introduced into the blood
serum Of a human being, the spores
soon hatch, and in short time the
vital fluid is filled with the deaQly
germs The latter produce a posion
OF an intensely virulent character
which quickly Hus-the symptoms
closely. resembling those Of strychnine
poisoning. Usually the sufferer dies
It is altogether possible that the
fetching of the native troops from IN
dia may cause mischief TO the aiues
far outweighinE in Importance LnelI
value as military auxiliaries For In
dia is the home Of Asiatic cholera, ana
they may have brought this trignIIuI
plague with them AS fba daE Ko DacH cons s
mission that the Delta Of the Ganges
is the original source from which the
malady comes It is permanently
established in that region now, as Tor
AGES in the past, and at intervals
spreads from thence to many parts OF
the world. In 1892. which was q
cholera year." 100000 people died Of
RussIa Fears Cholera.
No wonder then that the Russians
are fearful lest their troops contract
the cholera in Galicia, where, accord
ing to newspaper accounts, II is al
ready working havoc among the Aus
TRANS It is one of the most infec-
tiOus diseases, and, once started as an
epidemic among the soldiers OF the
car, il might prove a far more dan
gerous enemy than the Germans. " nole
armies might be literally wiped out
by it in a few weeks.
An epidemic Of Asiatic cholera, which
started in New York City in Is 10,
reached St Louis in the fall Of that
year. and "wintered over" there-a re-
suit being the troops leaving Jefferson
Barracks in the following spring scat
tered ii through Kansas and a wide
extent Of territory beyond This dis
tribution of the malady was attribut-
able to a few mild cases" which were
not medically recognized. The men
thus affected, who exhibited no symp-
toms more serious than a slight diar-