The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-12
DISEASE DANGERS OF
 MEXICAN INVASION

MEXICAN INVASION.
 The possibility of war with Mexico has been before our people for some time; if 8 general war occurs it means invasion of Mexican territory. The question naturally arises, What are the disease dangers which will cox front American soldiers in Mexico? It has long since passed into a trll- ism that in war, disease kills more than bullets. Will this prove true in Mexican war? The increased since the Spanish-Arnerican war has enc outraged the belief that the mor- ta1ity from disease will be materially 1essened. To what extent is this be- lief Justified, and what are the. dis eases from which our troops may suf- fer in a. tropical country and from which they should be protected? These questions, which have probably been in the minds of many of our people during the last4few weeks, are Journal of the American Medical As sociation.
 Aside from the ordinary diseases which might prevail among any body of two or three hundred thousand men, there are certain diseases to which soldiers in camp and in the field are particularly. exposed. These are especially small pox, typhoid fe- yer and dysentery. Smallpox may be disregarded, as any troops sent i'm to Mexico will be immune from this disease through vaccination. Ty- phoid fever, in the past. has been the awful scourge of military camps The appalling experience of the Spanish American War has not been forgotten by our people: the record Of twenty thousand cases of typhoid in the Ar my in six months produced an irll-s precision which can never be obliterat- ed. But since then progress in pre- Yentive medicine has been made and vaccination against typhoid is a re- suit. Anti-typhoid inoculation has been subject to rigorous tests on large scale in the Army during the past two years, with the result that in 1913, out of ninety thousand men at home and abroad, there was only a single case of typhoid fever among the inoculated, a record that can we'll be regarded a triumph for proven tive medicine. It is believdd that the army surgeon now has a weapon against typhoid that will make the next war unique in this regard. Ev- cry officer and man now in the United States Army and Navy is practically safe against this disease, and each re- cruit will be inoculateds at the time he is sworn into the service. The next campaign in which the United States. Army will pa rticipate will be a practical test of typhoid prophy- 1axis onsa large scale. That it will prove the value of fnoculation and will relieve warfare of one of it's most horrible accompanime ents there is lit tie doubt.
 The dysenteries can be divided into those due to bacterial invasion and those caused by ptomaines in foods. While the water and food of the SOL diers will be more carefully guard ed than ever before. certain amount <7S table. It can safely be predicted, how ever. that the nation will be spar ed a repetition of the -embalned-s beef scandals of 1898. The work of the general staff of the Army the de- velopment of departmental officers of amount of publicity. on pure food that has taken place in the last decade, ought to insure the American soldiers a wholesome food-supply. After the experience and warning of the past, the American people will hold to a strict accountability any one respon- sible for supplying the Army with food materials which are not in ev-' cry way up 10 the standard
 or the diseases peculiar to tropi- cal and se1ni-civilized countries, vel low fever, malaria, bubonic plague. cholera and typhus must be iconsid- cred. The brilliant work of the last fifteen years in demonstrating the transmission Of malaria and yellow fever by the mosquito has put our Army and Navy surgeons and sani- tarians in possession of all the knowl- edge needed to control these diseases. The convincing demonstration of the practicabilfty of their control given by General Gorgas in the Canal Zone has proved that malaria and yellow fever can be controlled completely in settled communities. Where men are living in fixed habitations, which can be screened and where all pos sible breeding-places of mosquitoes for a necessary distance can be de- stroyed, the pIete eradication of these two diseases is possible. It remains to be seen, however, what methods can be developed for prevent ing mosquito infection among soldiers in the field. Mosquito can, of course, be carried, JahdN patients in the field and hospitals can be pro- tected as well as troops in barracks for permanent quarters But how about troops in the field, scouting par ties, pickets and outposts? 'Undoubt- ed1y American ingenuity will devise methods to meet the needs, and the dangers of these two diseases will be greatly diminished, although occa- sional cases may be unavoidable Elz zl - IzI zzIzzI ' . v '