Evening star., 1915-02-14

The report of the death Of the sur
geon general Of the Austrian medical
| corps from typhus fever
TyphuS will serve to awaken the
| r, medical authorities of all of
| AS'eA' the belligerent European
powers to one of the greatest dangers
faced by the millions of soldiers on
. the battlef1elds This is the opinion of
the American health officers and army
and navy Medical Corps men who are
| familiar with the history of typhus
| fever
| Irwin Cobb and other American OBJ
| servers who have accompanied the Eu-
ropean armies have brought back sto-
| ries that practically all of the soldiers
are infected with vermin. Cobb told
plain facts in plain language and in a
recent talk said that there is hardly
a man in the field who is not lousy"
His later written statements along this
line have convinced health officers that
the spread of typhus could hardly be
| avoided, because. as is generally
known, the dangerous disease is spread
by the bite of the body or head louise,
just as bubonic plague is spread by the
bite of an infected flea.
In Mexico and some of the southern
American countries typhus is almost a
national disease. In Mexico it has caused
the deaths of thousands of persons an
| nually. In 1910 three parties were sent
from this country to Mexico to investi-
gate the disease, and one man in each
party contracted it, two of the three
dying. DIR. Joseph Goldberger, a sur
geon in the United States public health
service, survived the disease and has
since written what medical men con-
| G.
counts which have been published con-
cerning typhus.
Although the officers of the medical
corps of foreign armies are doing
sanitation in the camps, it is known
that the general lack of bathing ia
cilities during the winters fighting has
brought about a condition which will
quicken the spread of typhus fever If it
should be allowed to get start in the
armies. The report of the death of
the Austrian surgeon general, DIR. Phil
lip Peck, is considered by American
health experts an indication that the
disease has already gained consider
able headway, and that news of Its
spread has not been given out until the
death of this prominent official.
Typhus is disease which has always
been found where large bodies of men
were gathered together for long time.
1t was formerly called camp fever,
ship fever" or Jail fever" George
Washington's brother died of it during
the revolutionary war. 1t Is a disease
Of temperate and cold climates and no
epidemic has been recognized in the
United States since 1892. In the sec
tionS of Mexico at an elevation of 5000
feet and above, where it is cool. it at
tacks many persons Various investi-
gators of the disease have testified as
to it's likeness to typhoid fever. Typhus,
however. is much more abrupt than
typhoid. but many symptoms of the two
diseases are somewhat similar.
The causes of the two diseases are
entirely different, however, typhoid be-
ing caused by taking into the body in
fected food or water and typhus by the
bite of the louise. There Is danger from
typhus only when the insect appears on
the scene, and health officers point out
that the means Of prevention of this
dangerous disease is to encourage bod
lily cleanliness. 1t is believed that II
the spread of the disease can be check
ed until the spring months there will
be much less danger than there is at
present from it on the European battle
field, because with warm weather there
will come opportunities for bathing and
new clothes will be furnished and the
old ones cleansed.