The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-13
YELLOW FEVER

oNtE DS6AD SCouTSe "H1Cu A has almost passed out is re- called by the announcement the other day of the discovery of a vac cine for yellow fever.
 It is not so many years since the name of yellow fever was more po- tent as a fear producer than, ever small pox was. It has prevailed endemically throughout the West Indies and in. certain regions of the Spanish Main since the discovery of America. The Barbadoes. Jamaica and Cuba are known to have suffer ed ep:demics of it before the middle of the seventeenth century. There were outbreaks in Philadelphia, Charleston and Boston as early as 1892 and for hundred years there were other occasional outbreaks cul- minating in the great Philadelphia epidemic of 1793.
 Northern cities were able by sani- tary and quarantine measures to pre- vent great epidemics after the early part of the nineteenth century but | from the West Indies the disease was occasionally introduced and prevailed eptdemically in the Southern States
 raging through that region in 1853. New Orleans alone having a mortality | of eight thousand. The last extensive
 epidemic occurred in 1878 when there
 were in Louisiana, Alabama and Mis-
 siss:ppi, a total mortality of sixteen | thousand.
 Today we can scarce realize the
 fear and panic which were created by this discovery of the disease in epidemic form. The whole country was alarmed; commerce in the affect
 ed region practically came to a stand still; cities were deserted; people died
 from exposure in camping out on the highlands. Rigid quarantine lines
 were established and innocent persons
 have been shot while trying to pass
 them and all industry-in the region
 ceased.
 These conditions. bad as they were did not sum up the total danger tc | national prosperity. Subject to oc. , casional epidem!cs as they were such cities as Galveston, New Or
 leans. Mobile, Jacksonville, and Charleston did not prosper as they should and the industrial development of the entire South was retarded
 Such were the conditions up to tn, summer of 1900. Then a group O young surgeons from the United States Army, with a heroism beyond praise, and a self sacrifice transcend X ing bravery on the battlefield, unde l the direction of Major Walter Reet s went to Quemado. Cuba, and began ] a series of experiments which resulted in a knowledge of yellow fever tha e has made possible it's almost entir T eradication in civilized centres an,
 the success of the Panama Canal.
 Voluntarily submitting to var:ou
 forms of exposure and acquiring tn disease they demonstrated the fac
 that it was only by the bite of a mos n quito that it was spread. One of tn y men, Jesse W. Lazear. died a marty e to science and the good of humanity d as was pr. Reed who died a fe, . months later from overwork
 is Now like a concluding chapter c
 an inspiring tale comes this announce Il ment that Dr. Hideyo Noguchi. l. Japanese. connected with the Rocke If feller Institute for Medical Researcr
 after a long series of experiments ha ,- developed a serum with which it e. possible to vaccinate. and secure a n immunity. similar to that secure l. against small pox. So we'll convince h of the efficacy of the vaccine al of the Central American countries tn; ts they are permitting travel witho,