The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-12
Frederick Haskin's Letter
TWORARE DISEASES.
O. 9 - 6 - 49,

Washington. D. G.. Aus. 1.-The
recent death Of . prominent Of
flcial Of the Emergency Fleet cor
porstion Of IN ailment known as
San Joaquin Valley DISEASE focused
the attention Of Tie country for an
instant upon that strange and fatal
malady. OF all the Ills that flesh
IL heir to-or American 6esh. at
any rate-this one has the fewest
legatees; for no case Of It In the
fatal form has ever been known to
develop outside that small section
Of California called sthe San Joa-
Quin Valley. The disease. how
ever, while rare ID not mysterious.
1t is caused by germ which medi-
cal science has isolated and stud
led. The strange thing Is that
though the disease Is contagious,
its spread IN confined to q relative
ly thinly populated section Of Cali
fornia.
II IL not quite fair to California
to insist that the disease 10 peculiar
to that fair region. San Joaquin
Valley disease exists In two forms,
one is the fatal kind, In which the
germ attacks the victims lungs.
the symptoms Of the illness being
so nearly like those Of tubercul-
osis that physicians have some
times confused the two. The other
is q milder type, in which the
germ attacks the victims skin. 4
number Of cases Of this latter type
have been observed, In districts in
the vicinity Of Chicago. Attacks of
this type are net likely 70 end
fatally
It also SCENT reasonable to sup
pose that ARerica has NO monop-
oily of this afiliction and that it
may exist and be prevalent In other
parts of the world. In countries
in which the medical vigil 10 less
expert and thorough than in our
own, it is quite possible that San
Joaquin Valley diseases, as We call
it here, is annually claiming its
victims. At any rate, one undeni-
able case Of it has been reported
in South America. 1t is entirely
within possibility that the disease
exists there but is identified a. the
better-known tuberculosis.
That disease may be widespeead
in p population and still escape de-
lection was demonstrated in our
own American experience with
pellagra. Only q few years ago
this disease was supposed by scien-
fists to be exceedingly rare in the
United States. But as investigation
proceeded, the surprising fact de-
veloped that in reality it was one of
the commonest of the disease in
the United States, thousands and
thousands Of Americans, par
ticularly at certain seasons Of the
year, suffering from it, and many
being slain by it.
Twenty Years Of Study.
The doctors of the public health
service in Washington have been
studying San Joaquin Valley dis
eaes for 20 years. In that time they
have had the germ under the mic
roscope, have grown it in cultures
outside the human body, have
transplanted the infection to ra5-
bits and guinea pigs, and have
given 1t to literature of consid-
cradle bulk. They have done every
thing but discover a specific cure
for the disease. The cure, like that
of tuberculosis, the germ Of which
has also been isolated, has eluded
them. The victim Of San Joaquin
Valley disease usually dies after
suffering for several years. A few
have vitality enough to throw it OF.
Practically only adults seem to be
subject to it.
The organism which causes the
disease was not difficult to discover,
for it is vegetable form rather high
er in the scale Of life than bacteria
and being close to yeast spores in
characteristics.
These organisms are known as
blastomyces. Sunlight, fresh air,
and invigorating food, to which the
tuberculosis germ will often yield,
do not seem to have much effect
upon the blastomyces. Whence
these organisms come to afflict
man nobody knows. but, because