Evening star., 1941-05-02
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
World War II is, as wars go, an excep-
tionally healthy one.
This is the verdict of United States
Public Health Service statisticians from
an exhaustive survey of epidemic disease
conditions in all the warning nations
up to the present Despite disorganized
and unsanitary conditions, the only ma
jor increase in grave Infectious disease,
aside from the flu epidemic this winter,
has been in spinal meningitis, according
to an analysis by Statistician Clara E.
Council which has just been issued.
Even this increase has not been very
alarming up to date. the report shows.
but it constitutes a lurking menace
much less serious today than before the
discovery of the sulfanilamide group of
drugs few years ago. The malady
seems to have affected all the countries
involved. There have been cyclic in
creases of the dreaded brain infection
in Europe every to IL years. 1t was
decidedly on the down grade during
the past decade but had started to
increase again just before the outbreak
of hostilities
In Germany there were 1926 cases
reported in 1888 and 5,O46 in 1899. In
the same period meningitis in Hungary
jumped from So to 1896 reported cases,
in Yugoslavfa from 155 to 731, and in
Bulgaria from so to 669. These figures
give by no means complete picture,
since public health reporting in the
Balkan countries is apt to be quite lax
In Great Britain all records for the
disease have been broken, although the
death rate has been relatively low. In
1910 more than 12,500 cases were re-
ported, in comparison with 1903 for all
of 1899, 1883 in 1888 and $500 for the
last epidemic year-1915-16. The case
fatality rate varied greatly in different
parts of the country, but on the whole
was much less than that between 1914
and 1918. Then the death rate among
civilians was about go per cent, and
sometimes reached as high as 80 per
cent. The average this time is between
10 and II per cent.
Sparse reports on the flu epidemic
show that it was of low virulence The
disease is not reportable, under British
law, unless it results in fatal pneumonia.
The majority of the deaths were of
elderly people.
The total incidence of Infectious dis
eases, says the report, has been low in
spite of the evacuations of populations,
the unsanitary conditions in bomb shell
ters, and the general worry incident to
bombardment. Returns for the first
seven months of the war show an almost
complete absence of deaths from diph-
liberia, whooping cough and measles. An
anticipated epidemic of measles did not
materialiZe. In most cases childhood
diseases since the start of the war have
not been as prevalent as in 1888.
The most feared of all war diseases is
typhus. The incidence of this plague
had steadily declined in Eastern Europe,
its chief focus, from 1921 to 1888. Then
it started on the upturn again, just in
time to be accentuated by hostilities.
In 1888 there were nearly 5000 cases in
Eastern Poland and more than 1900 in
Bessarabia, which has been taken by
Russia.
The disease also has appeared in some
sections of Germany where it has not
been epidemic-notably in East Prussia
and in Polish Silesia. Last March there
was an outbreak in Mecklenburg, a dis
trict of Northern Germany bordering on
the Baltic, with % reported cases and
six deaths.
For four or five years before the war
Germany stored crystalline cevitamic
acid as assidiously as any munitions
chemical.
This is revealed by DR.. Russell Wilder
of the Mayo Foundation, chairman Of
the Nutrition Committee of the National
Research Council, on the basis of infor-
nation recently received. Now, he points
out, there must be very large supplies in
reserve for such an emergency as fol-
lowed the first World War. Then, for
the first two winters, the population of
the Reich suffered severely from scurvy.
The storing Of this substance, the pure
form of vitamin c, shows the eXtraordi-
nary thoroughneSS with which Germany
prepared for a long war, DR.. Wilder says.
Some of it was purchased from the
United States and the rest prepared in
German drug houses, but the Germans
relied largely on American research work
in calculating the amounts of the vitamin
which might be required.
The Nutrition Committee, DR.. Wilder
says, has no reliable information on any
other synthetic vitamins which may be
stored in enormous quantities inside
Germany in anticipation of an extended
struggle. It is probable, he believes, that
there are adequate supplies of thiamin
chloride, the nerve vitamin, and nico-
tinic acid, the pellagra preventative.
The exceptional attention to cevitamic
acid, it was explained, was natural
result of past experience, since large
part of the population was affected with
at least low-grade scurvy in the first
postwar winters.
In the United States at present, it was
pointed out, there is no particular need
for cevitamic acid storage. 1t is abun-
dant in many common foodS-orangeS,
lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, strawber-
ries, raspberries and cantaloupes. 1t is
contained in mustard greens, spinach,
dandelion greens, cabbage, turnips, toma-
toes, green peas and radishes. Histori-
cally potatoes have proved of great value
in preventing and curing scurvy. They
contain little of the precious vitamin
but are eaten in such large quantities