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.--While laymen
have given their attention to casualties
from bullets. medical and sanitary eN-
perts have been Weighing the probable
losses from a 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 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 astonshed
the mntary representatives Of American
and European nations sent to make OBJ
sorvatons of the RussO-Japanese War.
Among these mediCo-mlitary experts
who were at the front with the Japanese
! troops and for a while with the Rus
slams, was Or. Louis Livingston Sea-
man, of New York city, who was sur
geon 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
geon-General Mori, of the japanese army.
the final statistics of the Russo-Japan-
ese War. After careful study of them,
he says:
The astonishing fact revealed by these
figures is that out of II 23S dead, 45 3T7
met death from battle casualties. leaving
2l.559 who died from all other causes to-
gother The ratio of those who died
from disease and those who died from
battle casualties, therefore, is as / 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 conflict of any great dura-
tton in which at least four men have not
p"rished 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 Turkish War 10000 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 1000 from bullets.
In our war with Mexico the proper
ton of losses was about three from dis
ease TO one from bullets, and in our
great Civil War nearly the same proper
tOn 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 perished from fevers and in
testnal diseases as were slaughtered in
the terrible battles that ended our great
conflict.
NO lessons seem to have been learned
from these frightful experiences for
later statistics show no Improvement
In the French campaign in Madagascar
in 1894, l4,0O0 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 the cTowning piece of mbecility
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 moment minimizing the
splendor of her victories on land and sea
AIukdcn. Port Arthur, Liao-yang and the
Korean Straits, of which two are among
the bloodiest battles Of history, | stin
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 hostilties
thorough preparations had been made in
the hospital service, in every other
department of Japan's army In her
a. urd-hrcakine campaign her military
officers were provided with an auxiliary
force of more than ii~D men known as
sanitary. soldiers. an absolutely un-
known factor In our army, These 'sani-
taTy soldiers were subseryent TO the
medical officers TO carry out sanitary
regulations serve as hospita, stewards
litter carriers or In any other capacity
to which they might be detailed,
Throughout the war they proved a most
powerful factor"