New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-25
The War of Nations Stimulates
War Against Disease

plish much in reducing the incidence Of sew
eral bacterial diseases now dependent largely
upon the abuse of alcohol.
"A most important problem from the
standpoint of infections is the proper care
Of the teeth. Never before has so much at
tention been given to the hygiene Of the
mouths of the soldiers and to instruction Of
the men on this subject This should elm
mate many serious infections about the
mouth, jaws and face, and it will no doubt
educate the entire people along line here
tofore sadly neglected This interest in
dental bacteriology in the army is largely
due, no doubt, TO the progress made in recent
years, especially m the United States and
England, in the study of focal infections
about the mouth and teeth and the dissem-
nation of such infections to other regions
Of the body.
81 consider it entirely proper here to call
attention 20 the very important role that
American bacteriology and hygiene have
played in this great war. Not only the work
done since the beginning Of the war, but thai
done before the war has had most sig
nificant application to the great medical
problems at hand. The work of Flexner and
his associates of Rockefeller Institute on
meningitis, the Investigations of Reed, Car
roll, Lazear and Agramonte on the control
Of yellow fever in Cuba, the work Of Gorgas
in making a health resort of the dIsease-ln-
tested Panama Zone, the work of Carrel
Dakin and a number of other brilliant Amer
lean surgeons on wound infections and their
treatment, the researches of FleXner, No
guchi Mathers, Rosenow and others on polio
myelitis, the work of Ricketts,, Wilder, Ander-
son, Goldberger and other Americans on the
etiology and transmission of typhus, and the
remarkably prompt and efficient control of
the Serbian epidemic of typhus by DR..
Strong and associates, the promising studies
of Bull and Pritchett on gas gangrene-all
these constitute a series of contributions
which, from a military point of view, are
fundamental in the conduct of a great war.
Already we may say American medical sci
ence has carried on its side Of the military
campaign and has set a mark for prepared
ness which might well excite the admiration
of, and indeed furnish lesson to, the other
departments of our military organization.
"And, finally, let me say that while no
doubt in a relatively short time this great
war among nations will cease, the great war
against the countless hordes of disease pro-
ducing germs will go on for ages yet to come.
This war of man against disease is in every
sense a real contest, in which there are pitted
against each other mechanisms far more in
.ricate and complicated than have yet been
devised by man in the European war. While
the contest between man and man may be
more spectacular and may involve greater
destruction in mass, the assault by the mi
crobes is far more insidious, more elusive
and, on the whole, far more deadly. Indeed,
war is in sense simply an incident which
man foolishly permits to enter into that
greater struggle with germ life and which
often gives the upper hand to the latter.
The great armies of men, women and chill
dren that are destroyed every year by bac-
terial diseases make the destruction Of life
in Europe seem almost trivial. A
combined attack against several of our great
diseases, such as the nations are making
against each other, would no doubt result
in their extinction. . For certain dis
eases like smallpox We are far more than
twenty-five years behind the times. We know
enough about several of our diseases and
have for years known enough to render them
extinct. But we do not yet know how to
execute this knowledge and to make il bear
fruit as it should. This is not primarily a
meteorological or medical problem, but a
social one. Indeed, it is one Of the great
problems Of democracy"