The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-02-17
A GREAT WORK
FOR HUMANITY

1t is true that the war was caused
BY misunderstanding between two
peoples, who would have highly es-
teemed each other and settled their
differences in peaceful and reasona-
BILE way had they know each other
well. 1t is also true that it cost the
lives of hundreds OF men slain in bat
lie, and thousands who died Of dis
ease; but on the other hand, beside
Getting Cuba free, and removing one
great cause Of disc0rd from the in
ternational affairs OF the world, it
set foot On series OF researches
that caused the threat of yellow fe
yer to be forever banished from our
Gulf and South Atlantic states, over
which it had brooded like a saffron
tinted nightmare every summer
since the dawn of American history
until a decade ago.
Men and women are, prone to be
forgetful-we never think OF yell
low fever now; yet our middle-ag-
ed men and women can remember If
they stop to think how every sum-
Iner there was vague wonder in
yellow fever wouldn't break out
somewhere before the first frost
came; and some Of them, and all the
older ones, can remember the panics
- 4 l.
member the long trains loaded with
refugees that ran for hundreds of
miles without stop except for wa
ter and fuel, the cars crowded with
men, women and children suffering
for food and water. and, when pass
ing thru towns with doors and win
Ciows closed, for air. They can re-
member the shotgun quarantine of
town against town. the health GER
4ificates and the fumigations, and
only too many can remember fun
erals in their families-those in par
ticular who can remember back
thirty-six years need not be remind
ed of the dreadful epidemic in Mem
phis and other Mississippi valley
towns that cost ten thousand lives in
1S78-more than all the killed and
ish-American war And We have
been free from this horror for ten
years: so free that We have begun to
forget it ever existed.
There is another enemy that not
only the South but the entire coun-
try and in fact the world needs to get
rid Of Unlike yellow fever, it
comes not as an army with flaming
banners, but as a thief in the night
Yellow fever strikes men and women
down as with the sword, but this
other enemy-malaria- theil
vitality and pulls them down day by
day So accustomed are We to il
that most of us accept it as matter
of course. Yet, where yellow fever
has slain it's thousands, malaria ha:
slain its tens of thousands; ant
while the former disease is banisheC
to the swamps and pestholes of thu
earth, malaria, like the poor, ant
helping TO make many of us poor, W.
have always with US.
1t is the opinion of many in TIL
medical profession that malaria an'
yellow fever are akin, or at least al
lied yellow fever fiourishes best il
malarial localities, and reaps it
thickest harvest among people al
ready vitiated with malaria. Mem
phis and other southern cities kne'
nothing of sanitation in 1878, an
all the precaution their people too
against mosquitoes was to retire be
Meath the mosquito canopies at nigh
In the daytime they accepted mo:
quito bites as a matter of course.
As aforesaid, the mosquito-bit
theory as cause for yellow fever b.
gan to work out shortly after I'll
Spanish-American war from ebserv;
ton made by American surgeon
during that war. 1t resulted in II
cleaning up of Cuban and West L
dia cities generally, as we'll as OF
own gulf coast ports, and has bee
carried to the greatest perfection {
the isthmus of Panama, where one
the most unhealthy localities in Il
world has been turned to one with
phenomenally low death rate.
The medical profession feels tn
il has mastered yellow fever.
hopes soon to control malaria. B
notwithstanding the fact that mala
IA effects more people than almo
any other disease. tuberculosis n
excepted, and renders the syste