The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-05

it arrived July 10th, and thence pro- cceded to the rest camp. where the bulk of the cases developed.
 From study of the history of each case, it was noted that the date of onset varied over a period of about month. The first case was i'll on leaving Camp Cody. The second de- veloped on June 18th, the third on June 21st, the fourth on June 24th, three on June 26th, four on June 18th five on July 6th'-after which there was a new case every day till the organization arrived at the rest camp, where 3S cases appeared These did not at first attract special attention, as there were many cases of influenza occurring among the sol diers who passed through this camp and the diagnosis was not established till after the unit had passed on, so that the other 57 cases occurred else where
 Capt Hawn, [. S. M. C., submitted detailed account of the SS cases, as to which we need only note that the mortality was 1915 per cent. (i. e., higher than the average among un- inoculated civilians) that the average duration of fever was 8 days, and that TO per cent. of the cases were ''severe highgrade typho1d."
 Quite a lot of eminent doctors tin c.uding Sir William La!shman) put their heads together over this dis appointing failurr of the vaccine" (Dr. Caiger). bu they could not agree upon any explanation. and the natural one Chat inocllatton was useless) naturally reTer occurred to them.
 The usual eXcus2s did not happen to be available.
 It could not be said, for instance Gas in s. Afriea) that that particular batch of vaccine was "dud" CT had been tampered win by the Hun, for "the men had been inoculated at widely different posts and at different times"
 For the same reason the blame could not be laid on Q particularly inefficient inoculator-for there were many.
 Neither could 1t be plea ded. as in GaIlipoH and elsewhere. that it was a new kind of typhoid or para-ty- phoid for which the standard vac cine was ineffective. In all but II cases (which nevertheless were eli niealiy cases of typhoid') laboratory tests showed true BucilIus typhosus typhoid.
 "All had been inoculated with either vaccine and para-typhoid vac cine), or triple typhoid vaccine or both.' Nor could 1t be said they didn't get enough of the vaccine, for many of them had received several doses in excess of the required number"
 Capt. Meader suggested two pos sible explanations of the spread of the infection, i. e., that it arose (1) during the train journey at the be- ginning; CD during a swim which the party took in Lake Meridian en route, the man first to sicken being a. member of the party and suffering from diarrhoea. This explanation seems to stretch the long arm of coincidence to dislocation. That one man in the ineubatory stage of the fever should so foul a lake as to in- feet other bathers in it with a mal- ady they had been specially inoculat- ed against is not triumphantly prob able. Our readers may remember the opinion of Dr. Houston (Water Examiner for the Metropolitan Water Board) which we quoted May, 1915:
 Tt has been assumed that the presence of a bacillus ind:stingu;st- able from the typhoid bacillus in public water supply necessarily inn plies grave danger, but herc again the results do not bear out the sur misc"
 Personal intervention of the Prince of Darkness seems as likely as any of the explanations suggested.
 pr. Caiger ("British Medical Jour- nal," November s0th), actually sug- gested that the inoculaions had not been recent enough, though the earliest were only eight or nine eIa ]