The Bismarck tribune., 1919-03-26
Special Investigator for Daily
Tribune Goes to Hospital
Where Most Cases Are Being
Treated and Learns From
Physicians Specialists How En-.
cephalitis Affects It's Victims.
First Thorough Investigation
Made for Newspaper Readers
Of 'The Sleep That Isn't Sleep"
BY E.<c. RODGERS.
N. e. a. Staff Correspondents Detailed
to Investigate the Lcthar0ic Ence.
phalitis lEpedemic.

N. e. a. Staff Correspondent Detailed
to Investigate the Lctharaic Ence.
phaiitis Epedemic.
Chicago, Mar. 21.-In Cook county
hospital five persons lie suspended at
the brink Of DEATH. Some OF them had
been in a state of coma for days. Doc
tors and nurses could do little but
shake the patients out of a trance
like stupor and administer medicines
and liquid food. Neither of which pa
ttents seemed to know they were TAX.
ing.
They were victims of lethargic en-
cephalitis, the new disease which has
appeared in widely scattered portions
OF the United States first in Chicago,
/. where now hundreds Of physicians are
watching every fl person Tor signs
Of what has been, called "sleep-death.'
DR.. John Dill Robertson, Chicago
health commissioner, has begun a sys-
tematic campaign to. find out what
causes the new disease and how best
It may be treated. "
MOST PATIENTS
HAVE RECOVERED.
been reported here. Other patients
in stupor for days.
Encephalitis attacks both young
and aged, negro and white, rich and
poor; the well nourished and the un-
derfed alike fall into THE SLEEP
WHICH ISN'T SLEEP.
It is slightly contagious, some doc
tors insist, while others say there is
no danger of cOntagiOn.
Five persons were in that death
like stupor at the Cook county hos
pital, and the physician permitted a
Daily Tribune photographer to take
a picture of one woman patient, with
her relatives consent, because, as he
said, it might >help to find the solu-
ton of the cure. He thought every
body ought TO learn about this new
disease, so they might not be unduly
frightened if it should strike within
tHetr own homes.
FACE OF AFFLICTED l ].
tTs 5WAx.LIkE. - ss45$
The encepha, It's rstient had been
inda stupor several nays. She lay
still as death, her breathing scarce
lyperceptible. Her face was wax
like. have seen faces from which
life had fled, and l was reminded OF
them as watched the nurse waken
the patient from her stupor to give
medicine.
For several minutes she shook the
+, sleeper, talking to her the while. She
did not answer.
'ssFinally her eyes opened, but she
said not word. A twiching muscle
was. noticeable. That ended when
tie nurse allowed the sick woman to
lay back her head upon the pillow and
resume her sleep.
" Medicine given her, the doctor in.
formed me, was bitter, but tha pa
tient allowed i to trickle down her
throat as she would have SO much
tasteless water. 1t was the same with
food, the nurse. explained; evidently
the taste nerves are silenced.
FOLLOWS SOME
INFLUENZA CASES.
She had influenza last fall" the
doctor said. "This followed"
"What is this new disease, doctor?"'
u asked.
'" t1U duu ScC LII. IctCi I)AooOS, AS
suggested, DR. Bassoe known more
about it than any other American ply
sician. He has written book on
nervous and mental diseases in which
this new disease is exactly defined.
DIR. Bassoe is professor Of nervous
and mental diseases at Rush Medical
college. y 4
DIAGNOSED AS ACUTE
NERVOUS DISEASE.
'Encephalitls,," DR.. Bassoe told me,
Ii an acute No, yous disease. 1t al
fects both sexes, all ages and colors.
It is not contagious, and is not always,
fatal. Most cases may last few
days, and instances are klown where
patients were in a stup6r Tor two
months"
Don't mistake it for the so-called
sleeping sickness of Africa. 1t is
not caused by the bite of the tsetse
fly. There is a world of difference.
""Encephalitis follows influenza. 1t is
q winter and spring disease, and will
probab bly, affect one in ten thousand
persons who had influenza. 1t may.
attack those who had light attacks Of
influenza as we'll as those more Sc
verely i'll. It followed influenza here
Is years ago, but was diagnosed as a
/. form of meningitis. In Europe then
lit was called mona, and there fol-
lowed influenza epidemics
NAMED IN 1917
eYs Won EcoNoMo.
'Under the name 'encephalitis the
disease has been known only since
early in 1917, when it appeared in vi
emma, and 1.-THE celebrated Austrian
physician Won Economo, coined the
name 'encephalNis lethargica, having
been impressed by the prominence Of
lethargy in the cases. A similar cpl
demic occurred in England and
France in the following year, starting
in, midwinter and ending in : late
spring. The death rate was highest
in England, 35 per Gent; and lowest
in Austria, less than five per cent dy-
ing.
'There is no reason for American
people to be frightened. doubt If
{the sperad of the disease will be