Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-05-09
Dozens OF he Bodies of Servan Soldiers Lying Tn.
buried in Ruined Village and Forming Each
Incubator for Pestilence.

typhus in the same class that vaccination
has smallpox
And now about General Gorgas. who
will be probably the only general in Eu.
rope applying the military idea, the idea
Of organization and system. not to slaugh-
ter. but TO the conservation OF human lie.
To go no further back than to the first
year OF this twentieth century. BY order
Of General Wood. himself physician. Sur
geon Major Gorgas proceeded to eliminate
pestilence, and more especially yellow
fever, from Havana; and Gorgas cleaned
MP that job within a year-,hough the
memory OF man ran not back TO the time
when Yellow Jack had not been a constant
visitor 10 that all-unwillng city.
Gorgas's next assignment was the Pana-
ma Canal
Gorgas and his associates made that erst.
while most pcstilent region on the globe
as nfcction-free rs any in these United
States, and much healthier than many.
Panama now rivals Palm Beach as health
resort
And here, reader. is some food for
thought for you TO digest, Just now, when
every morning you scanning the war
news in your paper. In modern warfare it
has been costing about $4,000 20 Kill a
man; in the Eoer row this item came as
high as 100000; the Balkan miX.up with
Turkey was conducted more reasonably
$4,000 burned up m making one mar food
for powder; and who can doubt that the
cost OF "kanonen futter" in the present
world.war does not far exceed any OF these
estimates? SO many thousands OF dollars
just for killing a man! Gorgas in the Canal
Zone saved human life at the actual cost
Of S2.43 the individual! Sanitation in the
lsthmus under his command cost just FIVE
per cent of the total canal building OK.
pcndtures
Next the Chamber of Commerce Mine.
n a N n lnH
eral Gorgas, TO visit South Africa and 10
study the sanitary. or rather the insani.
'ary. conditions in the Witwatersrani
mines. He went with the consent aud
approval Of our War Department. And the
result has been length OF days for many
a poor Kaffir who would otherwise have
died must untmely and most pathetically
OF pneumonia, tuberculosis and grippe. the
infections most prevailing i'm those regions
Another problem put up TO Gorgas was
offered by the town of GuayaQusl in Ecua
dora town that existed in the twentieth
century under fourteenth century condi
tons; a town which had hrs. mortgages
on most of the malarias in existence:
town in which yellow fever might almost
have been called an industry Well, In
brief. Gorgas heading a commission OF
experts. and with the cooperation espe
cially OF DR.. Lloyd. of the United States
Hospital Marine Service. solved the prob.
Guayaquil.
So the unique value of Gorgas's work
and the fact which peculiarly interests us
here lies In his practical demonstrations
that it Is possible to make any section OF
the earth pestilence-free; that civilized
man has to-day no business receding TO
any medieval position of fatalism, resiG.
nation or indifference to the ravages Of
epidemic diseases
Some years ago Johns Hopkins Univer
sity made Gorgas n Doctor of Laws On
chat memorable occasion he said: II first
came to Baltimore forty-fve years ago a
ragged barefoot little rebel. with omnty
pockets AID still more empty stomach Nv
father hau gone South with Lees army
Al the TALL and destruction of Richmond
my mother's house, with all she had waa
burned. leaving her stranded with six
smail children. These memories are vivid
anu can never be effaced." How vividly
VIII they come to mind, arousing pity and
sympathetic emotions. when tbis ereot r,an
goes TO Servia in the Spring of this veor
OF our LORD 1915 and comes upon their like?
Ihats the kind of man Gorgas Is. And
when we seek to comprehend the reasons
for his success, we naturally rccam tho
house in Holland where Peter tho creat
studied shipbuildng. In this house is
Ieter picture, and under it the legend in
outcn: Den grootcn man is NETS ia
Klein the great man there is moth.
ihs 100 Smail Tor consideration
Dlsease germs are mighty small things
lew exceeding one-ten-thousandth of %,
men In size. But the bacterial bullet "a
10 az, Killing off more human beings by
iar than any weapon Gorgas grasps that
lutte detail wherefore the world NAV hone
that his army of sanitation should he take
command. will win the most noble and he
nignant of human victories those over the
lences! A poo'f