The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1920-04-30

municatiOn of the lea future, We may
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-
giOn or the era, but towns and villages,
mainland and island, are invaded early
or late 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 occurrences.
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,
that is, to return to q stricken region
after an interval, usually of months of
relative quieScence.
Thus the beginning Of the last pan.
demic in Europe and the United States
has been traced to sporadic cases ap
pearing in April, May and June. pos.
Sibly even earlier in certain places,
while the destructive epidemic ragged
during September, October and Novem,
Der Of 1913. There are very good rea.
sons for believing that in itself in.
fluenZa Is not q serious disease, but
that 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 name in which to fight dis.
eases of this nature is, according to DIR
Flexner, n Of central rather than
p~eripheral control" that is, fighting
the disease at It's source rather than
waging q series Of campaigns against
1t after 1t has spread to distant cen.
tiers. To quote:
According to this proposal. an eff.
fort at control amounting ever to even.
tual eradication Of the diseases II the
regions Of their endemic survival would
be undertaken, an effort, indeed. not
occasional and intensively spasmodic,
as during the pandemic excursions,
but continuous over relatively long
periods, In the hope that the seed
beds, as 1t were, Of the disease might
be destroyed.
THAT such an effort at the eradica-
ton Of q serious epidemic disease may
be carried through successfully, the ex-
perience with yellow fever a%bundantly
proves. In attacking that disease, the
combat was not put off until it's cpl
demic spread had begun and until new
territory, such as New Orleans, Jack
s%onville and Memphis, had been in
vaded; but the attack was made on it's
sources at Havana, Panama and now
Guayaquil, to which endemic points the
extensions into new and neutral terri
DRY had been traced.
More Victims Than War.
"In proposing to strive for the high
achievement, not merely of parrying
the blows struck by destructive cpl
denies, but Of rendering them i'm
potent to strike in the future, we may
pause for a moment to reflect on the
different ways In which peoples react
to great calamities, such as those
brought by war and by disease. AS the
results of a cruel and devasting war.
revolutions in governments supposed
the most stable may occur no such
result follows on still more devastat-
J Ing epidemics. The recent epidemic OF
influenza claimed. possibly, more vic
tins than did the great war. and the
losses to the world in emotion spent.
treasure consumed. and progress i'm
peded are incalculable; yet. through
a fOrtuitous circumstance of psychol.
ogy. from the one calamity the world
may emerge chastened. perhaps even
bettered. while from the other. because
Of a depth of ignorance amounting oft
en- to fatalism, mankind may largely
miss he deep meaning Of the lesson