The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-11-09

The last part of it-that the germs
are borne by persons who do not de-
velop the symptoms--has been demon
strated in the laboratory. The sub
jects of the experiment were parents
who had fondled a child that had the
disease. A monkey was infected with
virus from their noses and threats. He
quickly developed the symptoms. But
would ordinary physical contact have
conveyed the disease from these per
sons to others? Likewise, what per-
sons become carriers. and how may
they be recognized so that they may be
quarantined?
You can readily see that if all per-
sons who had the disease and all who
were carriers of it were quarantined,
an epidemic could be quickly checked.
But it is impossible to quarantine all
persons who have IN any way come IN
contact with a sick child, especially
since many of the cases will not be re-
ported to the health authorities until
they are several days old. Hence to
learn how to diagnose the carrier, and
exactly how he functions as puryeyor
of germs is the great problem.
In this study of spread the maps play
an important part. For example, a
glance at them shows what might other
wise never been fully appreciated, that
the disease travels along railroad lines.
The little rows of pins follow every
trunk line in New York and Pennsyl-
vania, and even run up the spurs. Need
less to say, this is pretty strong confr-
nation of the contact theory of spread.
Another striking fact revealed by the
maps is that the plague affects larger
number of people in the rural districts
than in the city. Richmond and Queens
had far more cases in proportion to
their population than did crowded Man
haitian. That the disease Is not spread
by crowding would at first seem to
argue against the contact theory of
contagion; but the doctors say no.
Many other communicable diseases
spread more rapidly in the country than
in the city. For some reason the pro
portion of immune persons is nearly al
ways smaller in the country.
Another lesson of the maps is that
the disease travels in waves, like those
that radiate from the spot where a
rock has struck a pool Of water 1t
seems to advance about fifty miles at a
time. This is one of the mysterious
unaccountable facts about 1t. So are
the facts that children about two years
of age form the great majority of its
victims and that it seems to occur a.
most always in the summer months,
though other diseases, which like it,
affect the respiratory tract, prevail in
cold weather. No cause or principle
has been discovered to account for any
of these characteristics.
The basis of the Public Health Ser
vices study of the disease is the lease
card " These are blanks which are
carried about by the physicians and fill
ed out with all possible information
about each case. Seven hundred of
these cards were made out during the
epidemic, and the results are still being
tbulated and studied.
Laboratory study of the disease has
likewise made progress without reach
ing solution. DR.. Simon Flexner of
the Rockefeller Institute has isolated a
very minute organism which he says is
the cause of it; but he has so far disco
vered no specific. DR.. Rosenow, on the
other hand, has recently announced that
one of the large class of germs known
as streptocOcci is responsible, and claims
to have infected monkeys with poliomy-
elitis by injecting these germs.
The Public Health Service frankly
admits that the problem has not been
solved. Exactly how the disease is
carried, and how the carriers may be
identified remains mystery. Should
another epidemic break out next year
like this one it would have to run its
course.
Nevertheless great gains have been
made. Much has been learned about
how to care for the victims IN order to
save them from manning. 1t has been
definitely determined that the disease
is not generally borne by milk or other
food, and that IN all probability neither
animals nor insects play a significant
part in its spread. So by a process of
elimination, the scientists are drawing
| closer to the truth.