The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1915-10-09
non-sursicai diseases Of warfare.

u
been much more destructive to tho sol
der than the enemy's ordnance Of
Baldwin, the Crusaders army OF 100000
but $4,000 reached Jerusalem. the rest
having succumbed on the way to chc,-
era. the plague. smallpox. typhus and the
like. In the Napoleonic wars about three
per cent Of the deaths were from wonnds
the rest from disease. Even In twentieth
century warfare at least three have died
of infection to one OF wounds; twenty.
ave to one was the English proportion IN
the Crimean war.
One would think that IN the present
trench warfare. with all its putridity. 50
peculiarly calculated to engender fnfec-
tion. the disease incidence would be
greatly increased. II has rather been
much reduced; first. because OF the pre-
the military medical authorities. IF 2rac-
tcally all the nations involved; aud sec
ondly, by reason OF the preventive vac
cines and serums that have been devel-
oped by medical science. There Is p-ac-
ticaily no smallpox In tIs present war
by reason OF the vaccinations against
this infection either enforced or sub
mitted tn with practical ananimity BY
the soldiers.
Typhoid fever was. no further back than
our Spanish war, a dreadful dissemination
OF troops. In that war more than ninety
per cert Of our boys developed this IN
fectiCn within e'gtt .ssks OF gain int
camp. Germany 1ac in the Frame,
trussian war at least rs 900 cases. She
was the first natios to- compel anti'v-
phoid NEGOTIATIONS among her troops.
and one nation or another has followed
suit, SO that now many millions of men
are inoculated. with the result that ty-
phoid is now practically eliminated from
military experience. And hat too, de-
spite such conditions as when last Spring
soldiers in Belgium drank the unsterilized
water OF flooded areas, into which cess
pools had overlooked. IA which corpses
had foated.
Cholera. like typhoid. Is also an inses-
ton Infection; that is. It is contracted
through taking the germ into the body
with the food and drink. and Ia absolute
ly no other way. And cholera has been
also dreadful scourge OF armies and Of
populations in war zones. But the Ger
man Doctor Haffkine's anti-cholera serum.
developed after Koch's discovery of the
cholera bacillus. and which has proved
measurably successful against the chol-
era In India. Is also effective In this
European war. though not so assuredly
as are the anti-typhoid NEGOTIATIONS. But
the study of this serum IN the present
war will lead to its improvement and to
its effectiveness In the future.
And typhus. the avowed camp fever.
the most malignant destroyer both Of
soldiery and non-combatant populations,
has done dreadful execution In the pres
ent war. as We all know. And this IL
because we have heretofore had no
knowledge OF the germ causing this In.
lection, and because no serum or vaccine
has been developed by medical sciences.
Even military surgeons have been so help.
less that sixty per cent OF them working
in Serbia land so many OF their faithful
co-workers, the army nurses) have died
most miserably of this famine. or putrid.
or siege fever.
Oftentimes. though not always, when
dire human need has arisen. human in.
genuity and human devotion have met
the need. Here. happily. the effort to
meet the need appears TO have proved
successful And the discovery OF the
typhus germ. as We all know. has re-
Gently been made by DIR. Harry Plotz. q
New York physician not yet twenty-five
years OF age. Working on the basis sup
piled by the laboTs OF Drs. Anderson and
Goldberg. OF the United States Public
Health Service. and by that OF DR. Rick.
etts. who was martyred in studying the
Mexican Tabardillo lin reality typhus),
DIR. Plotz established this discovery and
developed from It the serum which, II is
confidently expected, will protect those
fnoculated with II from typhus fever as
certainly as the antttyphoId inoeula-
tions protect against the latter infeo
ton.
Malaria was formerly dreadful plague
OF armies. Alexander the Great died OF
h- But the applied KNOWLEDGE that tho
malaria germ Is conveyed to humankind
by the anopheles mosquito and the I'm.
proved sanitation Of camps. by which tbs
breeding OF this mosquito Is greatly TO
dueed or rendered impossible. has made
malaria unknown In the now existing
European camps. And the venereal dis
eases, which get their unclean crops es-
pecially among victorious troops. are
now more than ever remediable by In
iections beneath the skin OF the drug
salvarsan
As have intimated. the unprecedented
medical and surgical results obtained In
the present conflict are due TO the pre.
paredness OF the various services for
dealing with the sick and the wounded
This cannot be better understood than
BY considering an EXPOSITION opened early
IN the present year In Berlin for the en-.
hEhteument OF the German public. An
mat II done BY the government and BY
voluntary efforts for the restoration 10
health 81 the wounded and sick Is here
represented. beginning with slckness
prevention measures and extending 40 M
convalescent In bis home
Nearly " not quite as eiaborats ere
the preparations obtaining among the
French and the English 1n England. %.
pecially. are provisions made 20 educate
the totally blind in some selfsustainlng
occupation. And yet who does not 81
here the most epicaily grotesoue ~
tragicomedies ever PLAYED since thu
dawn Of history, the way men are now
one the one hand hard a. work slaughter.
lag and malming one another. and on the
other hand their equally paInstahin,
preparations for restoring those who have
not yet siven uD the Ehost IN the occa-
sionless conflict