The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-01
PROTECT SOLDIERS
 AGAINST DISEASE
Progress In Controlling the ScOurges That Once AL
 tackled Armies.

armies throughout the history of the world, but this danger has been re- markedly reduced within the last few years, and there is good reason for believing that military sanitation has all but eliminated the danger of casu- altics from those dread diseases which have heretofore taken such a toll of soldiers-typhoid, typhus, malaria, dysentery and yellow fever, says the Washington Star,
 A report of Russell A. Alger, then acting secretary of war, on the mor- tality of American soldiers in the Spanish American war, shows that to September 30, 1898. 345 soldiers were killed or died of wounds, and it also shows that there were three volunteer soldiers sick to one regular, and that the percentage of deaths among volunteers was twice as high as among the regulars. In report made by Surgeon-General George M. Sternberg, he said:
 "I am of the opinion, also, that the haste with which volunteer regiments were organized and mustered into service was responsible for much of the sickness which was reported in the early days of camp life. It was, however, typhoid fever which broke down the strength of the commands generally"
 The two greatest scourges of mod ern armies in the field have been typhoid fever and dysentery. Small pox, once one of the great menaces, has been conquered by vaccination, and inoculation against typhoid has removed the terrors of that disease, but dysentery remains, and also measles, said to be especially danger ous under field conditions. Cholera, if once it secures Q foothold among armies, is one of the most destruc- tive diseases, but camp sanitation and the better and cleaner conditions un- der which troops live in the field have reduced the danger of cholera.
 Things have materially changed for the better with troops in active ser vice. In the Crinean campaign 23O out of each 1000 British soldiers died annually of typhoid fever, dysentery and other infectious diseases. In the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71, the an- nual death rate from disease among French troops was 140.S per 1000; among the Germans, 24.5.
 In the Boer war, lasting two years and eight months, 5,774 British sol diers, in a force having an average strength of 2OS,326, were killed in battle and 2.10S died of wounds, a total of 1882, or about 14 per 1000 year. Disease claimed 14,210, or a5.5s per 1000 year, which was al most double the number slain by Boer bullets. The total death rate was 39 per 1000 a year, and the total wastage including invalided, miss ing and prisoners. amounted to 40 per cent. of the total strensth Of the army annually. Nearly per cent. of the total strength was constantly sick.
 Sick Received No Attention.
 In the Russian-Japanese war, which lasted 20 months, the number Of Jap anese alone in killed and death from wounds averaged 54 per 1000 a year Disease claimed 27,142, or 25 per 1000 year, showing no better than that made by the Germans in the Franco Prussian war.
 As one searches the records of his- tory the situation of the soldier of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 18th century seems to have been especially unfortunate. A military medical authority has written:
 Sick soldiers of an earlier day re- ceived no attention whatever. If the wounded received any care it was from a comrade or from the women who followed in the wake of the army. Then the barber became the army sur geon, when there was any, 70 give way later to monks. Napoleon paid little or no attention to sick and wounded. In the Peninsular cam paign about 6o,OOO French soldiers were killed in battle in Spain and about 100000 died of disease. In the Russian campaign of 1872, of 500,000 who crossed the Dnieper in June scarcely 10000 returned in December. Bullets killed some,' to be sure, the deadly cold claimed others, but the great majority perished of disease. The 1913 campaign after Leipzig was no less disastrous. Of an army of 100000 that left Leipzig in October only a few fragmentary. battalions followed the eagles across the Rhine in November. The total ruin of this army was due to sanitary neglect Sol diers died of disease by thousands, scattered among the villages along the route from Germany, leaving pesti- Hence in their wake.''
 AS a result of anti-typhoid inocula- tion typhoid has been practically ban 1shed from the American as well as other modern armies Striking results are shown in connection with the United States army manoeuvres in Texas in 1911. At San Antonio there were 12,SM soldiers and all were vac- cinated. Among all there was only one case of typhoid. Up to September 30, 1911, S1,340 were vaccinated, and among these only F cases of typhoid were reported, with no deaths Among civil populations in close proximity to these troops there were many cases of typhoid with the usual percentage of deaths. Germs have been more deadly than bullets. The figures in the war of the union, and all previous wars of any length, teach the same truth, that disease is more deadly for the soldier in the field than are bullets.
 United States Leads World.
 A foreign observer has said that Thanks to vaccination typhoid fever is becoming @ negligible element in the military organization. The United States army leads the world in the ex- tent to which this preventive is used, and France is foremost in this regard among European nations"