The Washington times., 1919-01-05

spread pestiience throughout the United
States. Three distinct diseases are the
chief menace:
Trench fever.
Typhus fever.
Relapsing fever.
And the danger In each case comes from
"cooties"-body lice.
J. Until this great world war these words
were never heard on the lecture platform,
were never met In books Of travel, war OF
history, were never in the newspapers.
Now the "cootie" has become part Of the
daily life of the soldier. lecturers discuss
, him, the war books deal with him and his
victims keep the army hospitals busy.
Will the cootie come In with our return,
ing soldiers or viii our quarantine author.
tiles stop him at our ports Of entrance!
These three fevers are not all-typhoid
fever, cholera and other diseases may be
spread by our Homecoming soldiers.
We have recently seen how q great
country can quickly be brought under the
sway Of Q disease like influenza II the
lesson that we have had In this respect
has sunk in there IL hope OF strong policy
against the whole list Of trench diseases.
Approximately 100000 deaths from In.
fuenza and pneumonia have occurred
among the civilian population OF the
United States since September is, accord,
ing to estimates Of the Public Health Ser
vice. About 10000 deaths occurred in the
camps In the United States, War Depart
ment records show, and the Government
incurred liabilities OF more than s1To,o0o,
900 in connection with life insurance car
ried By soldiers In army camps, not In,
cluding those In Europe.
Horrible AZ these results are, what
might we not expect from the trenches II
q lax policy is to be pursued In the control
Of returning soldieryi The rigid military
and medical measures which have given
our army such q creditable record in the
field cannot follow them into civil life.
and therefore much depends upon the eff
cheney Of our local end Federal authorities
A great test Of preventive medicine is at
hand.
What have been the trench diseases
which we have some occasion to fear may
not come to an end with the war, and
which may transfer their rayages from the
battlefront to the residential sections Of
American cities and to our rural comunL
ties?
Perhaps by familIarizing ourselves with
these diseases now, and with their modes
of transmission from the infected to the
well, we shall be able to supplement etfec
lively the efforts OF our health authorities
to keep the new enemy at bay.
Trench fever and typhus are intimately
identified with trench life. The diarrheal
group has, Of course, played q part in our
military death rate. Typhoid fever has
not figured to any extent, on account Of
the efficacy OF the newer vaccination
methods Hookworm disease has, Of
course, been detected among our Southern
troops. Cholera has been practically con-
fined to the Eastern front, but now that
a portion OF our troops are in Russia We
may yet have to take thisl disease into
consideration. Relapsing fever has ragged
rather fiercely In Serbia.
Trench fever is OF special interest to
US and we shall say a good deal about 1t.
What applies to its mode of transmission
also applies to that OF typhus and relaps-
ing fever; that IS to say, all Of these fevers
owe their prevalence to the "cooties," alias
the "graybacks," alias just plain lice,
which at last have reached a point of
eminence, as / have already said, where
they may be introduced without apology
into polite conversation and belles-lettres
Perhaps we cannot do better than to
begin with some personal" remarks about
coolies.