Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-07
The Victory Over Tybho;d

The Victory Over Typhoid
- 70 MORE brilliant or benefcent vie
N tory was ever won than that which
the United States army has scored
over the deadly legions Of typhoid. Among
| four million American soldiers in the recent
war, there were only a thousand and sixty
five cases of the malady, or about twenty
six hundredths per thousand; and only
one hundred and fifty-six deaths, or thirty
nine thousandths per thousand
The significance of this record, made amid
! all manner of environments and under
| stresses apt to try the hardest constitutions,
| becomes apparent when compared with that
! of other times In the War Between the
States, for instance, there were upwards of
| eighty thousand cases of typhoid in the
Northern army alone. In the Spanish Amer
lean war there were twenty thousand seven
hundred and thirty-eight cases out Of ap-
| proximately one hundred and eight thou
sand, officers and men, the deaths number
ing one thousand five hundred and eighty.
In the Franco-Prussian war, sixty per cent
of the German army's mortality was caused
from typhoid. Indeed, from the days of
Achilles to Caesar, and on to Napoleon, and
fairly into the present century, these view
less bacteria have slain their tens of thou
sands where thousands fell by sword and
gun.
It was in 1908 that the medical depart
ment of the United States army entered
upon thoroughgoing investigation of the
methods of typhoid preventives. Colonel F.
F. Russell, following his official visits for
this purpose to London and Berlin, returned
with invaluable ideas of his own as we'll as
those gathered from the foreign laboratories
and clinics. These ideas were promptly put
to test in a number of voluntary vaccina-
lions. The results were conclusive of
the feasibility and efficacy of the treat
ment that in the course of few years
thOuS6 ndS had taken if of their will
and at length it was made obligatory upon
all persons in the service, we'll as upon
recruits. Something of the Importance
of that order may be inferred from the fact
that whereas in 1901 the ratio of typhoid
cases in the American army was more than
nine to the thousand in 1918 it was only
thirty hundredths to the thousand-that is
to say virtually negligible.
Writing in the latest number of Current
History, William H. Cole, who spent twen-
ty-two months of the war period in the
Army Medical School in the manufacture
Of typhoid vaccine, gives an interesting &C
count of how the preventive process works.
cit has been found,' he points out, chat
the introduction of a foreign protein into
the blood-Stream of an animal causes the
formation of substance in the blood which
destroys that protein neutralzes it's harm
full effects. This phenomenon furnishes the
basis for the production of artificial i'm
munity from bacterial Diseases Just this
is the principle in typhoid vaccination. ''The
foreign protein thus introduced" Mr.. Cole
continues, whether it be a bacterial ex-
tract or live or killed suspension of the
bacteria, is called an 'antigen, and the sub
stance produced in the blood is an anti
body The formation and distribution of
the antibodies render the animal immune to
the disease caused by the corresponding bac-
teria If at any time the system is affected
by the bacteria the antibodies destroy them
or neutralize their poison, and the disease
is prevented
To this discovery and it's utilization null
t1tudes of civilians, as we'll as soldiers and
sailors, owe immunity from perils beyond
measure So widespread indeed is the GUS
tom OF vaccination against typhoid becom-
Ing, that it will not be long ere enlighten-
ed persons will no more think of omit
ting this preventive than of failing to
summon doctor in cases of serious ILL
ness.
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