The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-08-17
By FREDERICK j. HAsKIN

WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. II. =
The recent death of a prominent Of
fetal of the emergency fleet corpora
ton of an ailment known as San Joa-
quin Valley disease focused the atten-
ton of the country for an instant upon
that strange fatal malady. OF all the
ills that flesh is heir tor American
flesh, 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 the San Joaquin
Valley.
The disease, however, while rare is
not mysterious 1t is caused by Il
germ which medical science has iso-
lated and studied The strange thing
is that though the disease is contag-
ious, its spread is confined TO rela-
lively thinly populated section OF Cal
| ifornia.
It is not quite fair to California to
insist that the disease is 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
!
sometimes confused the two.
| The other is milder type, in which
the germ attacks the victims skin
A number of cases of this latter type
have been observed in districts in the
vicinity of Chicago. Attacks OF this
type are not likely to end fatally.
1t also seems reasonable to suppose
that America has no monopoly of this
izr +I,a+ CT
be prevalent in other parts of the
world. In countries in which the med
ical vigil is less expert and thorough
than in our own, it is quite possible
that San Joaquin Valley disease, as
we call it here, is annually claiming
its victims. AT any rate, one undeni
able case of it has been reported Ii
South America. 1t is entirely Within
possibility that the disease exists
there but is identified as the better
known tuberculosis.
That a disease may be widespread
in a population and still escape detec
ton was demonstrated in our OWL
American experience with pellagra
Only few years ago this disease was
supposed by scientists to be exceed
ingly rare in the United States. Bu1
as investigation proceeded, the surpris
ing fact developed that in reality i
was one of the commonest of the dis
eases in the United States, thousands
and thousands of Americans, particu
larly at certain seasons of the year
suffering from it, and many being
slain by it.
Twenty Years of Study
Given to Disease.
The doctors of the public health
service in Washington have been stud
wing San Joaquin Valley disease fol
twenty years. In that time they have
had the germ under the microscope
have grown it in cultures outside tht
human body, have transplanted the in
,, lection to rabbits and guinea pigs, anC
. have given to it a literature of con
. siderable bulk.
They have done everything but dis
, cover a specific cure for the disease
The cure, like that of tuberculosis
! the germ of which has also been iso
lated, has eluded them. The victim
! of San Joaquin Valley disease usual.
dies after suffering for several years
A few have vitality enough to throy
it off Practically only adults seen
| to be subject to it.
The organism which causes the dis
ease was not difficult to discover, TO
: it is a vegetable form rather highe
-