The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-01-10
GUARDING HEALTH
Government Has Most Careful Provision For Sailors
Ill or Wounded, Says William ]. Braisted
Nam YorkHe HernLdA of !.
Neo York Herald Magazine of War


/ pOSoQly we'll Wnon no oHCcTS GHc
navy. The first weeks of his SER
vice are passed at training sta
tion, where he is made stronger
physically, and here the regular
life and exercise make him even
more healthy. as everybody can
testify who has watched the re-
cruits arrive at a station and has
seen them leave a few months later,
standing straighter, weighing more
and often an inch taller.
He is then assigned to some unit
in the regular navy. There he is
under the constant supervision of
physicians who have made a study
of the conditions under which he
is living and the ailments and dis
ease to which he is liable. This is
more than could be said of him at
home.
In the Office of the surgeon gen.
eral of the navy hangs map of the
United States dotted with pins with
heads of various colors. The map
resembles those used to show the
movements of belligerent armies.
1t is, indeed, a map of an invasion
of the United States, but it is not a
military invasion.
The colored pins show the inva-
sion of the armies of disease
throughout the various states, and
each color denotes a different con-
tagious disease, such as measles,
scarlet fever, smallpox. meningitis
and the like, as these diseases come
1 first from the foci in the civilian
population.
Every day come reports from
officers of the United States public
health, department, and the pins
are moved about as the germ
armies advance or retreat.
| At a single glance it can be told
just what diseases are prevalent or
present in any part of the country.
Let US say, for instance, that
this map shows number of cases
Of meningitis in Kansas. The ex-
amining officers are informed
through the public health reports,
and all applicants for enlistment in
the navy from the affected district
are watched for symptoms of pre-
vailing diseases. The same is true
of every disease which can be car
ried or conveyed in any manner
from one person or place to anoth-
er. At the training stations the
men are kept under observation
for days until it is practically Ger.
tain that they are not carriers of
infection.
The conditions under which the
men live once they are in the navy
are conducive to health, and it is
. not easy for disease to start and
, gain foothold, but transmittable
. diseases do not get into the navy
J from the outside. Wherever great
numbers of young men live together
they are liable to epidemics, but
| these diseases are quickly isolated
and taken care of.
It should be remembered that in
peace times epidemics of disease
, are extremely rare in the navy,
/ and the deaths are too few to at
! tract attention. When, however,
j at the outbreak of war hundreds OF
young civilians, as newly enlisted
recruits, are brought together
, from all parts of the country and
intimately associated, epidemics dc
. occur. The boy from home where
the parents do not believe in vac.
cinations." from town where the
authorities think it unnecessary tc
quarantine a contagious case, etc.
, Thus, q youth whose little sister OF
, brother has measles or scarlet fever
and who may carry the disease is
allowed to 60 away and enlist and
in time he endangers hundreds OF
7 others.
In great many ways the men
themselves can better their health