The New York herald., 1921-12-25

by WlLLIS
- EW things are more aggravating in
r. the experiences of the general news
writer than his effort to get the
human interest" element out of stories
told him by soldiers of science upon their
return to civilization from the wilds where
they have been prosecuting investigations.
On these the descriptive parts of the jour
ney, the scientists are almost invariably
inarticulate What happened to them per-
sonally figures even less than incidentally.
Adventures that might excite, and should
excite, them they rarely mention, and when
they do so it is but casually. 1t is more
Z than likely that these personal things fade
from memory at once and leave not trace
behind
A hairbreadth escape from wild beast,
tumble into what novelist would de-
scribe as 'bottomless abyss" bare safety
from flood. starvation, attacks by cannl-
balls, the sort of thing, in fact, that Her
man Melville would have made long book
about they don't give even paragraph in
their studied but cold accounts OF what
they have accomplished at risk of life and
limb
=, Clearing out all this extraneous matter
as If it were mere underbrush, they let the
light of science fail only on the discoveries
they have been permitted to make for SCI
ence Even in familiar talks to friends this
scientific reticence remains fully as marked.
The case of the great scientists attached
to the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Re-
search in their fight-a winning light
with yellow fever is pertinent. VINO would
not have read with deepest interest what
happened to these soldiers of science IN
their successful campaign in Ecuador OF
their subsequent adventures in Yucatan'
where they stamped out the last seed beds
there of yellow fever?
Incidents of Daily Lives
.d Would Be Most Interesting
Who would not have followed step by
stem the daily lives of these men, especially
as accompanying these details would nave
come, as it has just come, the amazing
official report from the Department OF the
Interior and Sanitation of Ecuador that
there has not been single case of yellow
fever in Ecuador since May %, 1913? And
that the last chapter of yellow fever seems
10 have been written when the Rockefeller
Medical Commission completed its work
and DR.. Hideyo Noguchi discovered the
causative germ of the pest?
Especially interesting would be their
human interest tales if these men could
tell them. since with the fear of yellow
fever dispelled the fear of visiting many
beautiful countries has gone too, and people
of all lands are visiting them.
What has been done in nearby countries
of Central and South America Will be re-
heated in Peru and there, 1T is rumored'
tho Medical Commission had many thrill
ing experiences.
Yet all that Dr. Noguchi has been driven
TO say about his life there is bald and IN
complete He merely has mentioned that
there were Inconvenience" in getting
about owing to the mountainous nature OIL
the country.
Inconvenience!
There must have been felt some OF these
Inconvenience" in getting about Yucatan
where the work of investigation led into
region uninhabited to-day. past ancient
ruined cities that gave overwhelming evil
dence of once great population of Maya
Indians who built vast platforms, pyramids,
temples and palaces. These ruins only to
he seen through screen OF briars, bringing
up thoughts of a nearly extinct nation and
awakening all SOIlS VI AlotpiAN"A fNNSNAO~f
might have had power to interrupt a searcn
for peculiar mosquito, at least for SHORT
time. That it did not exhibits the forceful
concentration of the scientific mind.
The Indian and the white man furnish
blood to the peculiar mosquito that it pre-
fers to the blood of the negro. And per-
haps when the Maya Indians fourished in
their great cities this mosquito had already
become domesticated. 1t is probable, indeed,
that the Leptospird cteroides that Dr. No
guch has found TO carry the germ Of yellow
fever was a domesticated insect in the
ancient Maya days All the conditions ex-
listed then to promote his general breeding
habit Water was stored in cement lined
cisterns. which the mosquito finds ideal
for his malign purpose, and there were al
ways water jars and gourds at hand.
Yellow Fever Was Plague
Before the Spanish Invasion
Truly there exist evidences In Yucatan
of the early knowledge and dread OF the
pest and perhaps one day the date of the
entrance of yellow fever into human his
tory will be found. At present IL Is lost in
the mist of the past but this much Is