Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-09-30
Spanish sFlu" Much Like Grip

back, we find that Athens was Vls!le1
during the Peloponnesian war, 4So-t2o
B. c., by a severe disease known as
the Attic sickness. which cost many
valuable lives, including that of'Perl-
Giles. Some historians even ascribe to
this epidemic the fall of the Athenian
hegemony.
During the Punic wars, the Car
thasinian army was said to have been
reduced by smallpox. and Ham!loar was
forced thereby to raise the siege of
Syracuse. In the year los, the Roman
legions before Seleucia were thinned ny
similar scourge, the disease following
the banners of the cnnqueror and con-
Quered and spreading to Rome ITSELF
where Il worked havoc under the name
Of "Antonin's Plague" The Black
Death which swept over Europe in the
fourteenth century attacked the army
of the Black Prince and forced him TO
abandon the siege Of Calais. Syphilis
az the end Of the fifteenth century
spread through the army of Charles
VIII. invader Of Naples. decinatins it
after the battle Of Fornuovo.
Since the seventeenth century the
wake Of armies, working its most nota-
bic piece Of destruction with the Ma
poleonic hosts. In more recent times
typhus has appeared in terrible guise
in the Crinnean war According to re-
liable information typhus cost England
Is. 900 men. France $1,000. and Russia
10000. Typhoid fever has repeatedly
become q pandeu1tc of war time, par
eicuIariy In America during the civil
war and in Europe during the Franco
Prussian war.
In modern times dysentery has been
a common affiiction Of warning armies
and still remains n source of SERIOUS
concern for medical STATS.
Far less dangerous than any of the
scourges enumerated above. Spanish
influenza has its serious aspect in its
possible impairment of an army's Of
fensive efficiency. For this reason the
medical staff Of all the allied armies
are exerting every precaution to pro-
tect the allied front from infection. The
disease reduces a soldiers vitality, SC
that ne cannot fight. and makes him a
ready carrier of the disease to others
unless he is instantly removed from the
ranks. ..N
America was practically exempt from
direct contact with the new disease, il
it was new, until the arrival in this port
on Aug. - of the Norwegian liner Der
gensfjord, which had during the voyage
more than 200 cases Of sickness resem-
bling influenza.
Prior to the arrival OF this vessel
however. and even prior to the epidemic
in Spain, it is worth noting that or
April ., the officials of the Ford plants
at Detroit reported that more than ZOO
employees had been suffering from
ma1ady which was very much like the
grippe and yet somewhat different from
the grippe. At that time Spanish in
huenZa' was unknown. No observa
lions were made Of the Ford cases ant
it rs only possible to guess at their con
nectson. If any. with what Is now known
as Spanish influenza
AS to the liner Bergensfjord how.
ever there was definite investiga'
ton. Eleven passengers were trans
ferred Immediately to the Norwegian
hospital IN Brooklyn.
On Aug. 16. eleven more cases o
Spanish influenza were reported a
Quarantine from a ship arriving from
one OF the Scandinavian countries. Al
of the patients we're in convalescen
stage and none OF them had developed
pneumonia. The ship was passed, ibu
the question was then raised for the
first time as to whether the health OF.
flcers Of the port should not be required
to quarantine against the disease. A
that time DR.. Leland E. Cofer, health
officer OF the port, and. Health Com
missioner Copeland, were inclined t
take the matter lightly and advance
| the opinion that Spanish Influenza
Was a nrisncner and that the epidemic
was not as new to this country as wa:
generally supposed. They regarded /
az nothing more than the grippe, or a
the best a sort of cousin" to thu
grippe. At that time also they wer'
firmly Convinced that New York wa
not in danger Of an epidemic. con
clusion which fails on Justification il
light of later developments.
On Aug. 10 big passenger liner a
this port reported that on her, voyage
twenty-one cases OF Spanish infiuenz'
developed among the passengers AM
crews.
The theory that the strange epidemic
of influenza attacked only those VIII
were run down because OF lack o
proper food was exploded in late Au
gust when. a dispatch from an Irlsi
port told of occurrences Of symptoms 0
this disease among officers and mel
stationed at an American destroye
Ibase. Aside from American soldiers, tn
American sailors are probably the bes
FED persons In Europe. but the diseas
attacked several score OF them there
and for week or so disrupted GREY
assignments completely. III o. tn
casesi6eeovered. 1t was found in tina
instance that the disease was not dan
gErous IL taken in hand quickly enough