Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1914 — WILL REQUIRE A BILLION DOLLARS TO CLEAN MEXICO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WILL REQUIRE A BILLION DOLLARS TO CLEAN MEXICO

Methods to Prevent Pestilences Hopelessly Out of Date. WORK FOR THE MEDICAL MEN Sanitation and Not'Running Down of Banditti Will Bo Tuk for U. 8. If It Intervenes and Occupies Distracted Country.

Washington.—“lt will cost a billion dollars to clean up Mexico,’* said a noted sanitary expert here. He referred to the medieval condition of the Mexican cities regarding measures for the prevention of pestilences. This work of sanitation and not the running down of banditti is the great task the United States will undertake if it intervenes in Mexico and occupies that distracted country. But just now the medical men here are not directly concerned with the problem of rendering all Mexico a country of healthy, modern cities. They are bending every effort to assure the freedom from sickness of the thousands of boys in khaki already in the tierras calientes, or hot coast lands, and the tens of thousands who may soon land there. Nothing could illustrate better the necessity of proper medical staffs in the field than recent reports of conditions in the Mexican federal ar my. The Mexican army has no medical corps that deserves the name. After a recent battle with the rebels the wounded who could not stand were piled in a heap and left to die. Those who could stand were crowded on a train bound for Mexico City. Their grounds were untended and putrefacftion set in. The poor wretches had

. not even water. Those complaining of their condition were taken to the doors of the coaches by the guards aboard the train and thrown off, some rolling underneath the wheels. Only the few who reached hospitals in Mexico City had a chance to survive. The American surgeons and Red Cross workers on the field of battle, as in the fighting at Vera Cruz, treat friend and foe alike. But even before the wounded become their care, army medical men find plenty to do. Sanitary work has really only been learned since the time of the SpanishAmerican war. It used to be axiomatic that disease killed more than bullets in a war. This was strikingly true of 1898.

Two years ago 13,000 American troops were encamped several months at San Antonio, Tex. There was only one case of typhoid and not a single death from that cause. In 1898, 11,000 “were In camp at Jacksonville, Fla., for about the same length of time and under similar conditions. There were 8,693 cases of typhoid, and 248 poor fellows died. Nothing could better illustrate army progress in preventing disease.

The Mexicans in Vera Chia who Were familiar with conditions in their own fighting force marveled at the preparations the American troops , tnade to war upon disease. The trim, active surgeons, the long lines of -mules and wagons, the complete equipment were somewhat of a revelation. Still more did they marvel when the soldiers were put to work carting muck from the streets and straightentag up in the first days of the occupa- '‘ Each army division, which is made -ap of four brigades, will have four field hospitals. In each hospital are des beds. -In the rear of the field hospitals, supposing an advance movement, will be an evacuation hospital, Which win hold twice as many beds as « field hospital. Behind the evacuahospital, fifty or one hundred miles, depending on the position, will fie a base hospital. There are five surgeons assigned to meh field hospital, three to each amfbulance corps, four medical officers find twenty-two members of a hospital eorp* to each regiment and a chief dta d istong ***°

believes that the work of preparing the army for the field has. been so effectively done that there will be little danger to the soldiers’ health. If the army were mobilized to occupy the whole of Mexico It would consist of some 120,000 regulars and twice as many volunteers. The regulars, excepting the recruits, would average one to three years of experience, which has taught them how to take care of themselves In the field. The volunteers would not be without experience either. Many would be Spanish war veterans and others would have learned the proper sanitary measures from maneuver camps.

The green men would be taught in concentration camps.' Most of the officers of volunteers are impressed with the value of sanitation in the field and they and the regular officers and older soldiers can be depended upon to instruct the new men quickly in correct habits. There was no such element of experienced men in 1898. The responsibilities of the army sanitary officer are great It is his duty to see that there is an adequate and pure water supply. AU divisions which go to the front will be equipped with the Darnell filter Invented by Major Carl R. Darnell of the medical corps, who Is now in the Philippine Islands. In many places In Mexico filtering will not do and water must be boiled. Besides water, the sanitary officer must see that there is proper disposal of sewage, that all waste food is promptly destroyed, that mosquito nettings are always used by everybody wherever there are any mosquitos, that stable manure—the common breeding ground of flies —Is never aUowed to accumulate, but Is promptly burned, that clothes .and bedding are exposed to the direct rays of the sun at frequent intervals, that care is taken not to permit the troops to eat unsound fruit or anything else which is liable to be infected, and generally that the rules of healthy living are observed by everybody.

With an army engaged in actual warfare, all this work has to be carried out under the excitement of the campaign and the pressure of the strategic and tactical needs of the moment and subject to the imperative need of attending to the wounded. For this reason, these precautions against disease are scarcely effective unless there is intelligent co-operation on the part of officers and men.

Yellow fever, tropical malaria, Mexican typhus, typhoid and dysentery are the diseases most to be expected in a Mexican campaign. To combat the first named Surgeon General Gorgas already has sent down there medical officers trained under him at Panama. There they are In command of

the experienced yellow fever expert. Colonel Henry P. Birmingham. Outside of Vera Crus yellow fever will probably not be encountered. Typhoid need cause little fear, because of the remarkable success of the vaccination treatment So far as malaria is concerned a field mosquito bar is provided for each man and. a head net for each man when on sentry duty. Dysentery 1s a water-bora ffiß-

ease and the medical department of the army has perfected a sinople and easily applied method of quickly sterilizing water in canvas bags, so that with ordinary precautions there should be none of this ailment Mexican typhus is a disease of the otherwise healthy plateau lands. It is carried by parasites of the body. To combat it buildings must be disinfected and the person kept clean. Colonel Jefferson Randoph Rtean, an army surgeon, who has recently written an excellent monograph on “The

Prevention of Disease in the Army and the Best Method of Accomplishing That Result,” says there has never been a time when the army of the United States was better prepared for war as far as military hygiene is concerned.

In case of extended operations in Mexico Major General Leonard Wood would be in command. He entered the service as a medical man. “The Fighting Doctor,” as he is dubbed, can be relied upon to pay special attention to sanitation.

If the 'United States were to take over that billion dollar sanitary campaign in Mexico, Dr. Rupert Blue, surgeon general of the United states public health and marine hospital service, would undoubtedly figure. His corps rushes to any part of the United States where a dangerous epidemic breaks out He is the man who stamped out bubonic plague in San Francisco by dyeing rats vermilion and yellow and green and by these brilliant messengers tracing the spread of the Asiatic scourge about the city.

Street Scene at Tampico.

DR. RUPERT BLUE. Surgeon General of U. S. Public Health and Marino Hospital Service.

DR. WILLIAM C. GORGAS. Surgeon General of U. S. Army.