Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-21
JAPAN'S SANITARY
SOLDIERS" TAUGHT
ARMIES NEW LESSON
Efficient Methods Reverse
Worlds Previous War
Mortality of 4 From Dis
ease to | From Bullets.

NEW YORK, Sept. 21.-Whie laymen
| have given their attention to casualties
from bullets, medical and sanitary ex-
perts have been weighing the probable
| losses from q still more destructive force,
| disease, because 1t Is we'll established
| that rarely has there been a conflict of
any duration in which at least four men
| have not perished from disease to every
one from bullets.
In modern times it was left for Japan
| to demonstrate that an army sanitation
system could be made efficient, and many
of her methods have been employed by
the armies now battling, simple methods
of precaution with results that astonished
the military representatives of American
and European nations sent to make OBJ
servatons of the Russo-Japanese War.
Among these medico-military experts
who were at the front with the Japanese
troops and for while with the Rus
slams, was DR.. Louis Livingston Sea-
man, of New York city, who was sur
geon major of the First Regiment, U. s.
V. Engineers, in Porto Rico and Cuba,
and who subsequently served In the Phil
ippines and made observations at the
front during the Boxer uprising. Doctor
Seaman personally received from Sur
geon- General Mori, of the Japanese army,
the final statistics of the Russo-Japan-
ese war. AFTER a carelul study Oh theH,
he says:
"rhe astonishing fact revealed by these
figures is that out of 77,23S dead, 45,3T
met death from battle casualties, leaving
21,559 who died from all other causes to-
gcthcr. The ratio of those who died
from disease and those who died from
battle casualties, therefore, is as 1 to
35.
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL RECORD.
Compare this wonderful achievement
of the Japanese with Longmore's tables.
based on the records of battles for the
last two hundred years, which are ac-
cepted as the most reliable statistics of
war, and which show that rarely has
there been a conflict Of any great dura-
ton in which at least four men have not
perished from disease to every one from
bullets Yet the Japanese lost nearly
four men from battle casualties for every
one from disease.
IN the Russo-Turltish War $4,000 men
died from disease and 0,O00 from wounds.
1t is asserted by eminent authority that
I'm six months of the Crmean campaign
the allied forces lost 10000 from disease
and only 1000 from bullets.
''In our war with Mexico the propor-
ton of losses was about three from dis
ease to one from bullets, and in our
great Civil War nearly the same propor-
llOn ODLdllltu. III IOuIu numbers Ol the
hundreds of thousands of fatalities in
that conflict nearly three-quarters Of
them resulted from disease. Almost as
many men perished from fevers and in
tcstinal diseases as were slaughtered in
the terrible battles that ended our great
conflict
mo lessons seem to have been learned
from these frightful experiences, for
later statistics show no Improvement.
In the French campaign in Madagascar, |
In 1894, H0O0 men were sent to the front |
of whom % were killed in action. and
1000 perished from preventable disease. |
In the Boer War in South Africa the |
English losses from disease were simply |
frightful, greater even than in our Civil |
War.
But tho crOwning piece of imbecility |
was reserved for our war with Spain, |
when, in 1898, more than l3 men were |
needlessly sacrificed for every one who |
died from battle casualties. and that, |
too, in Il war the chief campaign of |
which lasted only six weeks
without for a moment minimizing the |
splendor of her victories on land and sea, |
Mukden Port Arthur. Liao-yang and the |
Korean Straits, of which two are among |
the bloodiest battles of history, l still |
assert unhesitatingly that the greatest
conquests of Japan have been In the hui
manities of war in the stopping of need
less sacrifice of life by the prevention |
of disease.
Long before the opening of hostlltes
thorough preparations had been made in
the hospital service, as in every other
of Japan's army, In her
record breaking campaign her military
officers were provided with an auxiliary
force of more than 1900 men, known as
sanitary soldiers an absolutely un-
known factor in our army. These 'sani-
tary soldiers We're subservient to the
medical officers, to carry out sanitary
regulations. serve as hospital stewards,
litter carriers or in any other capacity
tu which they might be detailed
Throughout the war they proved a most
powerful factor"