Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-03
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henrp.

for the great doctor.
For two years he had known that he
was dying of an incurable malady. He
wrote strange book, an autobiography
in the form of the life story of one who
had just died.
But to all his associates Hans Zinsser
seemed as hale and jovial as ever, and
the book, which rapidly became best
seller, was considered an artists fantasy
Before the end the great epidemiologist
worked with failing strength on one last
job-a legacy to his country of conclu-
sions from his experience as a medical
colonel in the last war which, ne felt,
should apply to the present national
defense program, and which probably
would save many lives. Before it could
be printed by the members of the As
ISOLATION of Military Surgeons to whom
DR.. Zinsser sent his manuscript, he was
dead. 1t has just appeared in their off,
cial journal, the Military Surgeon.
The message DR.. Zinsser, long re-
cognized as one of the foremost world
dulllOilllC VII CplICiIllC OlSCdSCo,
to express was that the soft recruit
cannot be treated medically like the
hardened soldier and that dumping
thousands of men into environments at
one time, as was done in the last war,
is bound to result in many deaths and
can be justified only in an extreme
emergency.
AS substitute measure, Dr. ZinSser
proposed that the assembly of troops
this fall be in many small centers, each
with few hundred men. AS these are
hardened, other groups of similar size
could be added, until finally each is
built up into full division. c. c. C.
might be made into such nucleus points
overnight.
There could first" he wrote, "be a
regional mobilization of men IN groups
not exceeding 500 in their home districts
villages, towns or citieS-in separate
camps for training in platoons, COM
panies and battalions until they had
achieved not only certain amount Of
preliminary physical conditioning, but
had acquired the rudiments of dis
cipline, familiarity with arms, and
tactical training in the small unit. Such
small units after the specified time con-
sidered necessary for the purposes
stated, perhaps two months, could be
brought together in regimental camps
Not until these regiments had gained
both physical hardness and preliminary
but sufficient military training should
they be brought together in well-pre-
pared divisional environments.
The objection to such plan is the
time involved. There is very little doubt
that such gradual process might con-
sumo three or four months before each
command could be considered ready for
training in the complicated. cooperative
organization of modern division. On
the other hand, the time lost would not
be great in the long run and might
easily be offset by the gain in effective
accomplishment, due to diminished
sick rate and reduction to a minimum
of the principle of survival of the fittest.
The additional cost would be less at
present than 1t would have been in
1917 because of the availability of many
C. c. c. camps. Moreover, it might be
worthy of serious consideration, when
first assembling the small units of 100
or more, that these men either live at
home or be billeted in the regional towns
and villages. Such billeting am quite
aware. is against the traditions of the
American Army in this country, though
it has often been practiced for Ameri-
can troops on foreign soil The idea
might be enthusiastically supported by
local communities at time of ma
tional emergency"
The sudden bringing together of all
sorts of green men affords ideal OPP
portunity, DR.. Zinsser pointed out, for
explosive outbreaks of all sorts of dis
eases. In 1917, he points out, measles
began to sweep through the camps i'm
mediately. Nearly 1000 died, and many
men were left with aftereffects that
made them almost useless as soldiers.
There we're more than 10000 cases of
mumps, few of which were fatal but
which delayed training and often left
invalidS. Most serious of all was spinal
meningitis whose outbreaks conceded
with the establishment of the big can
tonments. Diphtheria swept through two
divisions, with more than 5000 cases.
There are bound to be, he says, many
carriers of disease organisms who can
not be detected in the hasty examina-
tons given recruits. In a small group
they can do little harm but among sew
eral thousand men they cause serious
epidemics before they are found out
The infectious diseases" he says,
"came almost with clockwork regularity
soon after these camps were organized
For the epidemiologist, these camps were
small laboratories which might have
been, If we had had the leisure to study
them, as instructive as mouse colonies.
"All of us who have served with troops
know that there is a curious, scien-
tif1cally indefnable but nevertheless I'M
questionable difference between the re-
cruit and the veteran. 1t is the differ
ence between the conditioned and I'M
conditioned man, which undoubtedly has
ultimate physiological explanations,
though we cannot at present define
them"
Cr:x