Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1920-04-30

munication Of the, near future, we NAV
predict that the next pandemic. should
one arise. will extend with the swift
ness of an airship.
Moreover. not only Is this rate of
spread determined by the nature of
the transportation facilities of the re-
S!on or the era, hut towns and Villages,
mainland and island. are invaded early
or ate or preserved entirely from
attack according as they lie within
or without the avenues of approach or
are protected by inaccessibility, as in
instances of remote mountain settle
ments and Of islands distant from
ocean lanes or frozen in during winter
periods.
To Avert Recurrences.
1T Is desirable. in the interest of
clear thinking. TO carry this conSidera-
ton of the characteristics Of epidemic
Influenza a step further. A feature
OF the epidemic disease OF particular
significance is the tendency to recur
tnat Is. to return to Il stricken region
AFTER an interval. usually of months of
relative q~uiescence.
Thus the beginning Of the Inst pan
demlc in Europe and the United States
has been traced TO sporadic cases an.
pearing In April. May and June. pos
silly even earlier in certain places,
while the destructive epidemic ragged
September. October and Novem-
Der ofs191S. There are very good rea-
sons for believing that in itself in
tnenza is not a serious disease, but
n a Its sinister character is given by
the remarkable frequency with which
IT is followed. under particular circum-
stances by a cOncomitant or secondary
pneumonia infection to which the Sc
we're effects and high mortality are
traceable."
The manner in which to fight dis
eases Of this nature is. according to DR..
F1exner, one Of central rather than
control that is. fighting
the disease at it's source rather than
a series Of campaigns against
It after it has spread to distant CEN
-ers. To quote:
according to this proposal, an eff
eort at control amounting ever to even
-ual eradication of the diseases in the
of their endemic survival would
re undertaken. an effort. indeed, not
and intensively spasmodic,
is during the pandemic excursions,
continuous over relatively long
periods. in the hope that the seed
,eds, as 1t were. of the disease might
)e destroyed.
THAT such al effort at the eradica-
ion of a serious epidemic disease NAV
'e carried through successfully. the ex.
with yellow fever a%bundantly
proves. In attacking that disease, the
'ombat was not put off until its epi-
lemic spread had begun and until new |
erritory. such as New Orleans, Jack
and Memphis, had been in
AIDED; but the attack was made ON its |
ources at Havana. Panama and now
to which endemic points the |
into new and neutral terri
Try had been traced.
More Victims Than War.
I'm proposing to strive for the high
o merely of parrying
blows struck by destructive cpl
femics. but Of rendering them i'm
'otent to strike In the future. we NAV
for a moment TO reflect on the
liferent ways In which peoples react
o great calamities. such as those
by war and by disease. AS the
esults of a cruel and devasting war.
evolutions in governments supposed
most stable may occur: no such
follows IN still more devastat-
ne epidemfcs. The recent epidemic of
claimed. possibly. more vic
than did the great war, and the
osses to the world in emotion spent.
reasure consumed. and progress i'm
eded are incalculable: vet. through
fortuitous circumstance Of psychol-
gy. from the n calamity the world
emerge ~chastened. perhaps even
Uttered. while from the other, because
t a depth of ignorance amounting oft.
n to fatalism, mankind may largely
Hiss the deep meaning Of the lesson"
Mules Show "Horse Sense.n