The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
FIRES NEEDED ID CLEAR SERVIA OF
 TYPHUS DISEASE
 SIR THOMAS UPTON
Horrible Condition Pictured by an English Sportsman Who Has Personally
 Inspected Conditions
THOMAS UPTON

London. March 2S.-Q2:15 d. m.)-'Just as it took fire to stop the great plague in London, so fires are needed to cleai Servia of tyhpus. Infected houses and the clothing of the people must be burned as the disease is carried by vermin,a said Sir Thomas Lipton tonight in state- ment to the Associated Press, in which he recounted appalling conditions in Ser via, where he has been making personal investigations.
 "I met on the country roads the sick too weak to crawl to a hospital: bullock carts were gathering them up. Often q woman and children were leading bull locks. the husband and father in the cart raving with fever. Scarcely enough peo- pie remain unstrfcken to dig graves for the dead, which lie exposed in the ceme- teries
 ''The situation is entirely beyond the control of the present forces, which im- peratively needs all the help it can get tents, hospitals, doctors, nurses, modern appliances and clothing to replace the garments full of tyhpus bearing vermin.' :
 Describes Hospital
 Describing the hospital at Ghevgheli where Dr. James F. Donnelly of the American Red Cross died, he said
 ''The place is village in barren, un- cultivated country, the hospital an old tobacco factory. Tn it were crowded 14Gf persons without blankets or mattresses or even straw-men lying in the clothes in which they lived in the trenches for months, swarmng with vermin. All dis eases-typhus. typhoid, dysentery and smallpox-were herded together lr such a state, Dr. Donnelly found the hos pital, where he had a force of six Amer ican doctors, 12 American nurses and three Servian doctors.
 When I visited the hospital three American doctors, three Servlan doc tors and nine of the nurses were sick
 'The patients were waited on by Aus trian prisoners. The fumes of rocking wounds and fever were unbearable The patients objected to the windows betng opened, and pr. Donnelly was forced to break the panes
 'The first thing Dr. Donnelly did on his arrival was to test the water, which he found infected. He then improvised boilers of oil drums, in which to boil water for use. He also built ovens in which to bake the clothes of the patients but he was not provided with proper steriliZing apparatus.
 Sir Thomas calls Dr. Donnelly one of the greatest heroes of the war.
 "No braver people exist than the Ser vians; they have never a word of com- plaint,' said Sir Thomas. Tn one ward I saw a fever patient, his magnificent voice booming songs to cheer his com- rades. Some were in delirium
 Source of Infection
 "One source of infection is the army black bread which is the only ration of the troops. The patients in the hos pital receive daily a loaf, which they put in their bed or under their pillow. Later the unused loaves are bought by peddlers, and are resold. spreading dis ease among the people, who are medic val as far as sanitation is concerned. 4 Servian soldier Is given a rifle, hand grenades, and perhaps part of uniform but otherwise looks after himself; his rations are coarse bread.
 '"The street cleaning and hospital wait ing are done by Austrans who are rap- idly thinning from typhus and other dis eases. The best hospital in the Balkans Is at Belgrade under Dr. Edward w Ryan of the American contingent, where there are 1900 patients. Dr. Ryan kept the hospital neutral during the Austrian occupation and accomplished wonders automatically at that time. He is wor- shipped by the people.
 "Dr. Ryan says that the greatest labor is keeping the hospital free from vermin Typhus affects men the most severely. Women come next, and children for the most part recover. The symptoms in the present epidemic begin like those of cripple. The disease lasts b days. with fever and delrum."