The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-03-18
Fredegie Haslkin'. Let's


New York City. March 17.-Be-
sides typhus, New York has been
visited By two new and altogether
amasing epidemics this year. One
OF them is sleeping sickness; ami
the other 10 that common and here
tOfore insigniiicant malady. known
- hiccups. At least, 30 they are
called. but neither is running true
to type.
For the sleeping sickness, which
is now % prevalent in New York,
10 not the same - the, famous
sleeping sickness Of Africa, the
cause Of which is we'll understood.
Nor IN the present epidemic Of hic-
cups In any way related to those
gentle attacks, occasionally ex-
perienced BY everyone, more espe-
cially since the pocket flask has BE-
come 80 popular. The new hiccups
are singuarly. malignant and per
sfstent, and are not at all humor-
GUS. They attack their victim sv-
cry few seconds during the day,
and are not always to be suppress
ed by deep breaths, drinks Of water.
chunks Of bread, and other we'll
known devices. Sometimes q hic-
cup spasm lasts for over an hour.
and the hiccvp series extends for
weeks at stretch.
Both epidemics, affecting hum
dfeds OF persons. have completely
bafded New York medical men. ana
all other medical men, for that mat
ter. No one has been able to dis
cover how or whence they came !;
what to do for them while here. or
how to get rid of them. From the
great medical research laborator-
les OF the city, such as that of the
Rockefeller Foundation, have come
various theories as to their cause.
none OF which has proved conyin-
cling.
The most interesting one re-
Gently advanced is that two AZ
nictions are in some mysterious
and subtle, way connected-that
prolonged attacks of hiccups are
merely QAa Of the many irritating
symptoms Of sleeping sickness; vet
this is by no means unanimously
accepted.
The only fact accepted without
challenge concerning encephalitis
iethargina, which is 8. SIS impress
size scientific name, is that it does
not spring from the same cause as
the African malady of the same
name. The latter is known to be
produced by the bite of the tsetse
ny, whose chief diet Is the blood of
the crocodile. I'm drinking the
crocodile's blood" according to an
ofhclal of the New York Health de-
partment, "the tsetse fly imbibes
the lazy bug lurking therein. The
lazy bug doesn't do the crocodile
any harm, and it doesn't do the
tsetse fly any harm, but when the
said unpronounceable fly iniects
the lazy bug into horses and cattle
it kills them of by the thousands.
and it does the same thing to hu-
mans, especially the black ones. In
three years, its deadly bite killed
100000 natives in one African pro-
vince"
A New Disease.
But the new sleeping sickness,
not more than two years old, must
be something entirely different, be-
cause We have no tsetse flies in
this part Of the world, and the only
crocodiles about New York are
kept behind glass window in the
zoo. Still, e. Lethargina must have
cause, and the medical profess
sion is striving CALAMITY to supply
it. Some of its members firmly be-
lieve that it is merely an after-ef-
feet OF influenza, but this does not
help much. because the influenza
germ remains to be identified. Be-
sides this, many others among the
profession are equally certain that
influenza has nothing to do with
the new affection.
1T is q fact that many OF our
sleeping sickness patients have had
influenza" declares DR.. Josephine
B. Neal of the Research department
of the Willard Park hospital here,
but We must remember that a
large part of the population of this
city has been afflicted by the last
epidemic Of nearly three years.
duration. So you see that it is
only to be expected that among
sleeping sickness patients there
will be certain percentage who
have had Influenza
Another theory which attracted
much attention for a brief period
was to the effect that the disease