The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-07-13

experiment. They sent the eggs of
those unple ant beasts to
England, where no trench fever has
ever appeared, and when the eggs
Matched out they put the beasts on
trench fever patients. Then they
put them on the volunteers.
About fifty or sixty Of the loath-
some insects were put on a square
Of cotton cloth and bound to the
forearm OF a soldier with strips of
adhesive plaster. A piece of sur
gical cotton over the cloth was we'll
bandaged on, and over the whole
dressing strong cotton cuff was
securely fastened with more adhesive
plaster. No possible chance for the
insects to escape remained.
Thirty-five soldiers were thus in
oculated with trench fever. The rest
were reserved for blood incubation
tests. The men who had their arms
bound up as described endured an
endless biting and chewing for ten
to fifteen days until they developed
the fever. 1t was a tormenting or
deal. Their arms became open sores
from which blood and pus penetrated
the dressings. The first attack Of
fever and binding headaches must
have come as a welcome relief to
intolerable itching.
All Are Made III,
Not man but that came down
with fever. One man ran a high
temperature for forty days and nights
without a break, but with most of
the men the fever and the pain were
| remittent. Some suffered so severe
~ that the doctors were obliged to
inject morphia.
Those men who were inoculated
with the blood Of the trench fever
patients developed the malady almost
Immediately. They suffered various
ly. with pain and fever, just as the
others did
THE monotony Of it was bad"
| said one Of the men, Big teamster
from Boston. "Nothln' to do but lay
there and burn up and curse the
pains in your blasted legs. Next day
you'd feel better, perhaps, but SO
weak that you couldn't move. The
nurses were fine, and there was
plenty to eat But we was too sick
to care whether there were women
around or not. and the best stuff
they gave us to eat tasted like saw
dust"
They agreed that the monotony Of
existence in trench fever was worse
than the pain. Life was a dreary
waste The eyes of the patients
were SO affected that they were even
denied the solace of reading.
In Line of Drive.
The worst was yet to come for
these devoted servants Of science.
When the German drive began on
the 21st Of last March it was found
that their isolation hospital, thought
to be SO safe, was directly in the line
Of attack. Lying in their beds, with
nothing over them but tent walls,
their fever-racked bodies and weak
ened limbs became tormented by the
shrek Of shells and the roar of ar
-illery. German airplanes droned
over their heads and bombs ex-
ploded around them.
They wouldn't let US get up and
see the show" grumbled one lad in
the rest hospital. Some Of us
crawled to the door of the tent and
saw little, but those English nurses
shooed US back. and when it got hot
ter they made us dive under the
beds. They are dreadful stern, those
English nurses. You have to mind
them as though they were the doc
himself.
BY March 81 the place had got too
hot to hold invalids, and the men
were taken down to Paris. The
Journey was a fright No beds, lit
tie food or water, slow trains which
took "a hours to traverse a distance
Of 50-odd miles, but the men stood it,
and when I saw them in the hospital
near Paris, all but one was out of
bed and on the road to health. They
were eating well, and more than one
begged me to use my influence" to
get them out of the hospital. -a
Pest Now Doomed.
When a sick man begins to eat like
a harvest hand and beg to get out
1T indicates that he has only few
weeks of convalescence ahead of
him. At least that is what the head
physician Of the hospital, when
put in their petitions, told me.
The cause Of trench fever, thanks
to our keen army and Red Cross
surgeons, and to the courageou men
who volunteered to help them, has
definitely been established. The
trench louise, once called a nuisance,
is now known to be almost as dan
gerous as the stegornya mosquito.
The trench louise must be got rid
Of, and that, happily, is not a very
difficult affair. Our American army
authorities will take care Of that
And our sons, we may be thankful
to know, are going to be spared one
Of the most frequent and most pain
full Affections of the war.
The scientists and physicians who
took part in the experiment by
which trench fever is to be abolished
will receive honors and rewards at
the hands of their colleagues and the
public. What would like to know
Is, what honors and rewards those