The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-04-17
''SiEEPiNG SICKNESS" THE LAT
\ EST MYSTERY.
Scientific Research Begun in Many
Parts of this Country.

Officials of the Federal Public
Health Service have started nation
wide study of the new and mysteri-
GUS disease which has appeared in
several cities and communities and is
known as the sleeping Sickness y
Government medical men at the
Public Health Service headquarters
are not sufficiently informed at
the present time to give any definite
opinion as to just what the disease
really is: They, have on hand only
acteristics of the malady
Surgeon General Rupert Blue, OF
the Public Health Service, and his
officers here in Washington and in
the field are calling the new disease
'encephalitis.' DR.. Blue intends to
obtain reports from every possible
source and has instructed his field
officers to get specimens of the germ
with which to conduct laboratory in
vestigations here.
The government doctors have
found that the disease is not the
African sleeping sickness, transmit
ted by an insect At this time Of the
year there are none of these insects
in this part of the country, they
point out, and sleeplness is always
the last stage of the African disease,
the recent instances reported to Gen.
Blue.
Physicians believe that this is an
altogether new disease, but there is
some eviQence that 1t was in Vienna
as early as 1890. According to the
information SO far received here, the
disease has nowhere in this county
reached an epidemic form, although
It has appeared as an epidemic in
came to the attention of the Public
Health Service several months ago.
Since then cases have appeared in
New York, Chicago and Washington,
and it is believed that there may be
other cases not yet given publicity.
Surgeon G. M. Mccoy, director of
the hygenic laboratory Of the Public
disease, issued the following state
ment:
There is not much known about
the disease and we have not yet as
certained whether it 10 infectious or
not. We are making efforts to OBJ
tain specimens from cases. We have
no information that blood contact is
necessary to spread the, disease.
from the is soet flfafy sease
Both have but one symptom in com
mon-stupor. Otherwise they are
THEORIES that the disease is a
form of infantile paralysis or that it
is form of blood poisoning like
wise have been exploded. Only a
few cases have been reported to us
and at the present time we know
nothing nc about how it is communicat-
Symptoms of the olsease as stud
led abroad are described in a state
ment issued by Public Health Serv-
ice officials. This statement terms
the new disease ''lethargic encep-
halitis." Thirty-seven deaths were
recorded in q study of 168 cases in
England. The stupor varies in dur
four or five weeks. Temperature of
the patient ranges from 101 degrees
Fahrenheit to 1O4 degrees.
The public health statement on
"In majority of cases prodro-
NAL period may be recognized, but it
is not very wen defined, the symp-
toms being the early stage Of those
Of the developed disease; Usually
conjunctipitis, and in a smaller num-
Der of cases tonsilitis. Simple sore
threats and bronchial catarrhs were
observed, but the salient symptom
observed in 80 per cent of the cases
at this stage was progressive leth-
argy. 1t might be ushered in sud-
denly by fainting attack or fit, but
the onset was more often gradual.
The patient became dazed or stupid,
slept great deal and was drowsy
by day. In marked cases the leth-
argy was accompanied by heaviness
of the eyelids. pain in the eyes.
blurred vision and photOphObia, and
in a well-marked case gradually
passed into stupor.
Headache was common and gid
diness was highly characteristic
early symptom, and in some cases
was accompanied by diplopia. Men,
tai hebetude was often, associated
with highly emotional state and the
patient might exhibit, without APP
parent cause, symptoms which might
be labeled hysterical. In other In
stances the mental depression was
20 great that melancholia was sus-
pected. In few CAGES only was the.