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. 2l--While laymen
have given their attention to casualties
from bullets, medical and sanitary eX-
pcrts have been weighing the probable
losses from still more destructive force.
disease, because it is we'll established
that rarely has there been a conflict Of
any duration in which at least four men
have not persisted 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
scrvations of the Russo-Japanese War.
Among these medco-mlitary experts
who We're at the front with the Japanese
troops, and for while with the Rus
slams, was DIR. Louis Livingston Sea-
man. of New York city, who was sur
gcon major of the First Regiment, L. 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
peon-General MOri, of the Japanese army,
the final statistics of the Russo-Japan-
csc War. After a careful study of them,
he says:
The astonishing fact revealed by these
figures is that out of 7723S dead. 1887
met death from battle casualties. leaving
2l,559 who died from all other causes to-
gcther. The ratio of those who died
from disease and those who died from
battle casualties, therefore, is as l to
SO.
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL RECORD,
Compare this wonderful achievement
of the Japanese with I.ongmore'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 n conflict Of any great dura-
tion in which at least four men have not
pershed from disease 10 every one from
bullets. Yet the Japanese lost nearly
four men from battle casualties for every
one from disease.
In the Russo-Turklsh War $4,000 men
died from disease and 10000 from wounds,
1t is asserted by eminent authority that
in six months of the Crimean campaign
the allied forces lost $4,000 from disease
and only 2000 from bullets.
I'm our war with Mexico the propor-
tiOn of losses was about three from dis
ease to one from bullets, and in our
great civil War nearly the same proper
tion obtained In round numbers of the
hundreds of thousands of fatalities in
that conflict nearly three-quarters of
them resulted from disease. Almost as
many men persisted from fevers and in
trstiual diseases as were slaughtered in
the terrible battles that ended our great
conflict.
NO lessons seem to have been learned
from these frghtful experiences, for
later statistics show no improvement.
In the French campaign in Madagascar,
i'm 1894 "A coo men were sent To the front
of whom - were killed in action. and
1000 perlshed 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 the 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 a war the chief campaign of
which lasted only six weeks.
without for a moment minimizing the
splendor of her victories on land and sea.
Mukdcn Port Arthur, Liau-yang and the
Korean Straits, of which two are among
the boodiest battles OF history, l still
assert unhesitatingly that the greatest
conquests OF Japan have been in the hu-
manities of war, in the stopping of need
less sacrifice of life by the prevention
Of disease.
Long before the opening Of hostllties
thorough preparations had been made In
the hospital service, AS IN every other
department of Japans army. In her
cord-breaking campaign her military
officers were provided with an auxiliary
force of more than 44,G0O men. known as
sanitary soldiers an absolutely un-
known factor in our army. These 'sani-
tarv soldiers were subseryient TO the
medical officers. 10 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