Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-22
THE PLAGUE MYSTERY.
~BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN

- yEw YORK Nov 2-The epidemic of infantile
M paralysis here has fallen off to few cases a
- day, but the campaign against the disease mas
relaxed whit. In the office of the United states
public health service the governments studies
of this plague been directed there is now going
forward what is from scientific point OF view the
most important work of the campaign All OF the data
gathered while the disease was raging is now pelng
classified charted mapped studied in effort to
about this newest and most mysterious
of the deadly diseases
The layman nearly all of the monkeys In
New York been sacrificed in study OF no" the
disease is communicated, and he knows that several
different societies and individuals are SAID 10
have isolated many different organisms wnlcn are
held responsible for it, But the extensive study OF
the with regard to it's spread and incidence
which played a much largeS part in the actual nght
against it, he heard little or nothing
The headquarters of fight against polio as it
is dubbed by of science, look like those OF
general in the field And indeed generalship-deduc-
tion plan actions the quality that counts IN the
combating of epidemic
The walls in this medical campaign headquarters
are maps and charts The maps range all
the way from an immense of United States to
large scale maps of single wards in New YORK Clty
All Of them are full of little pins with various
heads that the whole effect Is exactly ike
that maps There are larger pins that repre-
EACH and smaller ones for single cases.
while TIE colors indicate the month in which thu
appeared The charts are curves mathematl-
cally plotted and show graphically the rise ana ran OF
the disease.
Now before you can understand the of maps and
charts in fighting a plague you must know something
of mystery which surrounds this disease In the
place. was unknown until about sixty-hve years
ago. and appeared only slight and occasional
mAlady. Small. epidemics first reported In the
late eighties and fairly large ones about ten
years ago. but it never before known that infant
paralysis could develop into such widespread and
deadly plague has just swept the cuntry. This
development generally explained by the assumption
that germ of the disease has been in process OF
evolu
evolve degenerate and perish.
This great epidemic having suddenly out like
a ground fire in a forest, hundreds of widely sepa-
rated places, the question confronting the men OF
science was, does it travel? The thing might be
stated this let represent child who has the
disease a child who is susceptible to it. The
medium between the two is all Of mans environment
How, then, is the disease transmitted through that
medium?
There are two ways of tackng the problem. One
is the laboratory method of trying to isolate the
organism and specific that will kill It, The other
field study. which is much like the method of
the mysterious is studied deductions made
as to how 1t works and what 1t iss
Naturally before you can proceed by this second
method you must have theory of the matter which
you will try either to prove or disprove There is no
use looking for murderer If the victim may
been struck by lightning. So, in this case the
illusions Wickman, a Swedish scientist studied
the disease in 19O5 are taken as an hypothesis He
believed is by physical
contact that the be carried by persons
who do develop the symptoms of the disease them
the scientist sets out either this
theory correct establish another in it's place.
The last part of ft-that the germs are borne by
persons who do develop the symptoms-has been
demonstrated in the laboratory The subjects of the
experiment parents who had fondled child that
had the disease monkey infected with virus
from their and threats. He quickly developed
the symptoms. But would ordinary physical contact
have conveyed the disease from these persons to
others? Likewise, what persons become carriers and
how may they be recognized so that they may be
quarantined?
You readily that if all persons who had the
disease and all who carriers of it quaran-
tined, epidemic could be quickly checked. is
impossible to quarantine all persons who have in
way come a child especially since
many of the will be reported the health
authorities until they are several days old Hence to
diagnose the carrier, and exactly he
functions purveyor Of germs is the great problem
In this study of spread, the maps play important
part For example. glance at them shows what
might otherwise have been fully appreciated
that the disease travels along railroad lines The
little OF pins follow trunk line in New York
and Pennsylvania and up the spurs Needless
say this is pretty confirmation of the contact
theory of spread.
Another striking fact revealed by the maps 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 populations
did crowded Manhattan That the disease
spread by crowding would at first argue against
the contact theory OF conagion but the doctors
Many other communicable diseases spread rapidly
in the country than in the city. For reason
proportion Of immune is nearly always
in the country.
Another lesson of the is that the disease
travels like that radiate spot
where a struck pool of 1t
about fifty miles at time. This is of the
mysterious and unaccountable facts about it,
the that children about two years of form
the majority of its victims and that
occur almost always in the summer months though