1910.
Vaccination of 12000
Men in the CInited
States. JTrnry has Re
duced theJDeatK
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX. PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER
18,
k - .w .ESSTJSZ
Master
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fir : : Q-s CW-. J -X. W
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Pate 90
I PT WILLIAM ATHKRTON rU TIT.
N T11K ia.t IS months II.'OO men of
I Tnrl Sin" army have b-n varrl-
naiPd for tyjhoi. fever. Of these
J'.OOrt. hut three men have since been
Marked, and these but slightly. There
ti not been a fatality from the dis
ease In the whole number.
In every uther block of the Army
rcntalninK 12."" men there have been
kz cases of typhoid in the same time
nd -seven deaths. In the 50.000 un
tacclnated there have been 300 casea
mn A 30 deaths.
So has the mediial corps of the Army
iVlleJ up tatistl.-s whit h prove beyond
doubt that the disease that Is always
Vtth us. that scource of the country
districts, that worst of enemls in time
tf war. may be met. muzzled and all
fe.ut subjugated. So 1st the method of
Jreventlnt; tjphoid belnit demonstrated
ton a masniruint scale. So is promise
tlven that the whole country may be
Ivome day vaccinated, and as a result
(but one-tenth of the present mortality
r III be annually recorded.
The month of September Is the worst
In the year for typhoid. Jusi now
tthere are twice as many cases of it In
nil the cities as at any other season.
rrti
lis is because the Summer vacation
ists hare returned from the country.
Jhave brought the rural disease with
Xhera and have spread It to others. It
)ls ever o In the Fall and every health
kiepartment knowa whence the disease
tomes. It i therefore timely that an
nouncement of the great steps toward
Jta eradication should be made now.
The statement Is for the first time
Issued on the authority of the Medical
Corps of the Army that If every Indi
vidual In the Nation would capture.
Mil. count and Inject Into hs arm
. 000. 000 typhoid bacilli, there would
jiext year be but one case of the dis
ease where there are now ten. It Is
farther stated that all those who do
not regard themselves aa good captur
srrs. killers, counters and lnjectera of
fcacilU may get the doses ready pre
pared from the Government. If they go
bout It In the right way.
I'ncle Sam's Army Medical Corps has
lone the demonetraUng. Major K. F.
1luseU is the chief Instrument In Its
working out. It Is but proper that the
snen of the Army should work out the
olutlon of this problem, for when a
military force goes into the field the
fever takes greater toll than all the
bullets. In the Spanish-American war
Si per cent of all deaths were due to
typhoid.
la the Federal Army during the Civil
"War there were fcO.000 cases. In the
ranco-Prussian war the German forces
lost 87S9 men from typohld or 60 per
rent of their total loss. In the Boer
War the toll was 000 men.
Those frightful mortalities have
Aroused that portion of the medical
world which has to do with. Its armies,
nd a rreat campaign for the preven
tion of these losses has been made. The
latest phase of that campaign has been
the vaccination of one-slzth of our boys
-In blue within that short period em
bracing the last IS months. In an ad
ditional similar span the remainder of
he Army will have been Immunized
and the greatest of the stumbling
blocks removed.
The battle that the British were wag
ing against disease In India In the '90m
led from Inoculations for the preven
tion of cholera to the application of
tiie same principles to typhoid. SirAl-
morth E. Wright, of the British forces,
made a vaccine and tried It on two
mn. lie was carried away with the
results. The men became immune.
The English and the Germans began
lhe long march toward developing the
right serum and its right application
to the individual. The most satisfac
tory check on results was gotten by
polonel Leishmaa. of the British army.
Lelshman vaccinated (473 men of the
Frittsh army. These men all belonged
In regiments which had been select
ad for a carefully controlled investiga
tion on a large scale. As each of these
regiments was in turn ordered to serv
ice In India, a medical officer who had
teen especially tralaed for Lois partic
r j,ism wmmiemmim awwKi a!?imLmKwm i - i?KViv$v i
I - ---w . - r-. in J - J r lis.
ular duty was attached. He lectured
.' to the troops on the prevention of the
disease, and called for volunteers and
Immuned them. As this medical otri
cer Is always present with the regiment
In all Its Journeys, he Is able to keep
careful records of all men Immuned
and to care for and to vaccinate addi
tional volunteers and recruits from
time to time as opportunity offers.
From his knowledge of typhoid fever
and clinical laboratory methods he Is
EUTOPIA FOUND IN SOUTH PACIFIC WITH SCOTCHMAN.
Coral Mon-xch and Forttae Otmed by Hardy Hightader-Mlay Who VMU London on Worldly Bn.mess-Perfect Climate-Keeling
LONDON. Sept. 17. (Special.) Folks 1
,.," often wondered whether that
modern Utopia we have always
dreamed of finding would be a mon
archy or a republic. It Is found now
the search la over. It has turned out
to be an absolute monarchy and the
king la a Scotchman.
Perhaps the world would never have
heard of this happy monarch or his
idyllic kingdom if he hadn't turned up
the other day In London on some stupid
matter of worldly business. But once
there, an unguarded allusion Quick
ened Interest. Inquiries were made and
out came the whole secret.
Cocos-Keellng Islands Is the name
of this blissful monarchy, and Sidney
Clunlea-Ross. styled officially Koas IV.
t. k.n.vnlAnl dclDOL The COSCOS-
Keellng Islands are a tiny little coral
group set down In the middle of the
bright blue South Pacific, half a
thousand miles from any land at all.
and almost 1000 miles from the slender
axta of civilization practised In the
Straits Settlements.
Complete Isolation, a perfect climate,
a brave record, a happy people enjoy
ing prosperous trade what more
could be expected of Paradise Itself?
King Rors the Fourth Inherits a
annals of his dynasty that few mon
arehs can boast of. His forebears
sprang from the granite stock of the
northwest Highlands, and fought for
the Jacobites In the days of Queen
Anne with Clan Chattan of Putherland
shlre. When this always hopeless cause
was finally lost. Alexander Clunles
Ross was one of the fugitives who fled
for life to the wild shores of the Shet
land Islands.
Here he founded his family in sur
roundings that reared an untamed and
hardy race. Here his great-great
grandson, known to Cocos as Ross I.
was born in 17S. In a little cottage
within reach of the spray of the sea.
Trained In this briny atmosphere. John
Clunlea Ross found himself, at the age
f 27, mate el the brig Olivia in the
' I 4 IV W MTOr mttj.1T rmST
enabled to make an accurate diagnosis
In all suspicious casea. By means of
these precautions Colonel Lelshman Is
able to furnish statistics which are
thoroughly accurate and reliable. The
results were as follows:
Inoculated. 6473. Cases of typhoid
fever. It. Deaths, 2, or per 1000 inocu
lated cases. .36.
Non-Inoculated. 6610. Cases of ty
phoid fever, 187. Deaths, 2.6, or per
1000 non-Inoculated cases. 3.91.
South Seas, bound home '
cargo. But the war of 1812
with a rich
. .i
cargo, nut tne war or is is was ou nun
American privateers were the terror of
the seas; so when, by a lucky chance,
Rosa was offered a captain's commis
sion under the British-Javan govern
ment, he Jumped at the opportunity.
The owner of the ship happened to
be Alexander Hare, then governor In
Java. Hare was the son of a pious
London watchmaker, but the spell of
the East made him an eccentric de
generate. Hla craze was oriental lux
ury, and when Ross first met him at
Malarca. Hare was presiding over a
goodly court, with a retinue of slaves
and musicians, and an extensive, cos
mopolitan harem.
Hare wu not without his good points
and threw his fortunes In with Ross In
search for more adventure in new lands.
Ross built a ship of 428 tons, took his
wife and sailed for America, while Haie
started In the opposite direction, both
planning to meet again in Java. But
America did not suit, as Rossi wanted the
sound of the sea always In his ears; and
Australia he regarded as only a convict
colony. Thus did this virile Scotsman
look over the whole new world In vain,
until . he happened on a little Island In
tbo South Pacific.
He had beard of Cocos before and, so
It chanced. Hare had also.
When Bon arrived, he found his couiw
tryman already established in Paradise,
with his court attuned to a complete
scale of ceremony. From the obvious fact
that Hare's painted parasites of pleasure
were not aids In a pioneer colony arose
the Inevitable spilt. One by one the men
came over to a party of Industry which
gradually grew up around Rosn. leaving
Hare at last with his harem, at the head
of the party of dalllanoa. A night rush
made the severance complete, and Hare
waa quietly shipped away to Singapore,
while King Rosa I reigned supreme In
Cocos.
Few realms ever had a more cosmo
politan population. Of the 176 human be
ings landed on the coral group, only 20
ware while, while aznODg the darker
. j '
Among 12,083 men there were 6473
Inoculated and 6G10 unlnoculated.
Among the former there were 21 cases
of typhoid, with 2 deaths, and among
the latter 177 cases and 26 deaths.
Among the exposed regiments who had
been Inoculated with the vaccine in
use at present there were 3.7 cases per
1000 against 32.8 per 1000 among the
untreated. The observations of this
group of 12,000 men cover a period of
over three years, and no more perfect
skinned races there were Chinese, Ma
lays, Papnan Cape negroes; Hindus and
East Indians from practically every island
In the Archipelago. The resulting race
today la a unique ethnological curiosity
a composite production from many
strains.
Ross the Rlrst ruled with an iron hand.
He wasn't content with having the can
niest head on the Island, he awed them
infinitely more by his splendid physique.
He was as hardy and supple as a panther
and soon could beat them at all their
own sports. A monarch like that, so
lusty that none of hla subjects could
throw a lance or disport themselves, in
the water so swiftly and cleanly as he,
set a stiff pace for his successors. But
though two marriages with Malay blood
have softened the ruggedness of the fam
ily physique. King Ross the Fourth is
still a splendid type of manhood, a lance
where his great grandslre was a clay
more. Two more events stand out In the rec
ord of the long reign of Ross I, both
with a atrong echo of Interest for today.
One was the visit of Darwin In 1838, on
the famous Beagle. Cocos was the only
coral Island Darwin ever examined, and
what he learned there played an incal
culable part In the development of his
scientific theories. The minor theory of
subsidence, by which he explained how
coral Islands came to be, was wholly due
to his trip to Cocos.
The other event was the Civil War.
Among the scum of three continents
then floating about the Southern Pa
cific, there landed at Cocos a cut-throat
Tankee named Raymond, whose villainy
severely strained relations between Co
cos and the United States for many
years. The present ruler visited New
Tork recently, however, and professes
himself quite reconciled.
A party of British blnejackets landed
when Ross II was King, and took for
mal possession of his six-mile htrip of
territory in the name of Imperial England-
It has been rumored' and not
denied that th's expedition never meant
to go to Cooo-Keeling, but to another
or convincing statistics are needed to
show the value of this method of pro
phylaxis. It seems to show that beyond a doubt
the death rate has been reduced 00 per
cent. Yet the process was yet yoiijig
and the Yankees had not begun work.
The secret of the vaccination busi
ness lies In capturing the germs of the
disease, killing them to prevent over
activity, and then placing them in the
blood. This arouses the system of the
Individual and it produces an antitoxin
for the disease In question that is. it
produces something to fight that dis
ease. When one has smallpox or typhoid or
any such disease, it ravages the system
until that system develops the ele
ments that will counteract It. When
these elements are developed the dis
ease is met by an equal or conquering
force and Is able to make no further
headway. The patient Is then immune.
Vaccination is but a fire alarm to the
system and starts it to developing the
needed antitoxin In advance.
The Government experts have cul
tures of typhoid germs which they can
plant any day and raise a crop in 20
hours. The seed for this particular
culture came from the spleen of a ty
phoid fever victim years ago, and have
been kept virile and on tap ever since.
Whenever the vaccine is used this cul
ture Is placed under the proper condi
tion In tubes and allowed 20 hours
of growth. In this time hordes of bac
teria have developed. These are celled
up In test tubes and placed In hot water
for 75 minutes. Tills kills the bacteria
and.lt Is ready to enter the vaccine.
But these germs mast be counted and
this process is ingenious. A given
quantity of the mixture containing the
germs is placed with a similar quantity
of human blood. The mixture Is shaken
up. Then It Is spread thin on a glass
and put under a powerful microscope.
Any given area of the glass Is counted
for blood corpuscles and at the same
time for dead bacteria. Science knows
how many corpuscles there are in a
drop of blood. If the bacteria are as
Cocos in the Andaman gTOup. But the
ceremony was a pleasant Invasion from
the outside world, and never made the
slightest difference In the status of the
Island.
Robs II was as Scotch as his father,
but his marriage with S'pia Dupongbut
a Royal Solo-Malay lady, slightly dark
ened the color of his dynasty. His wife
was a noble and gifted woman, how
ever, and the Malay population always
loved her with unswerving loyalty.
So Ross III, who succeeded In 1872.
followed his example and married the
dusky Inln, another high-bred Malay
woman, who made a brave and devoted
wife. But the present successor to the
throne, though thus three-quarters na
tive, speaks from under a long Malay
mustache with a braw touch of Scotch
burr. It will take many generations
for the palm to choke out the thistle.
George Clunies-Rosa was getting a
Glasgow University education when
the urgent call came from his father to
come back to Cocos In 1862. when a
terrific cyclone and typhoon almost
blew the settlement off the Island. He
took hold with a hardy hand, and from
bis accestion to his recent death he
ruled the Island like a true chip of his
grandfather. He used his scientific
training to good advantage on the
island, and in a year or two every
lighthouse in the Malay Archipelago
was being lit by oil from the Cocos
palms. Like his grandfather also, he
set a pace In the arts of strength and
seamanship no native could follow,
and his court never heard the murmur
of a mutiny.
For the biologist, as well as the eth
nologist, the place should be Ideal for
research. To consider how the crowds
of animals ever gained a foothold on a
bit of corn so completely Isolated from
civilization. Is a problem indeed. It
seems as though all the enemies of
man have done the Incredible while
none of his friends have survived the
test. Rats from the ships, Insects from
the air and the water, unbelievable
voyagers like cockroaches, centipedes.
ClHITirfG TYPHOID,
J- iGHTEiacs:
thick as the corpuscles then there
would-be a similar number in a drop.
If they are half as thick there would
be half as many, and so on. So the
number of bacteria may be compared
with blood.
When the number of bacteria in a
drop Is knowri, that drop may be dilut
ed and divided indefinitely. For a vac
cination dose 6,000.000 dead germs are
needed. The men of science have
counted so accurately that the doses
they fix up will not miss this exact
number very far.
This vaccination is not to be com
pared in severity with that for small
pox. The patient has entirely recov
ered within a day. There Is some In
flammation at the point of inoculation
and this is fully developed within 12
hours. For a day the patient feels
like he was goini; to have the grip or
a cold, or some of those milder attacks.
He may have a slight chill, headache,
or suffer slight nausea. This usually
lasts but two or three hours and all
symptoms disappear within a day.
There are never any serious effects of
the vaccination. The medical profes
sion of the world has observed In all
some 80,000 vaccinations. In no one of
these has there been any Injury or fa
tality. There Is nothing whatever to
fear In the process.
There is not a healthier place in the
world than the army post. The sani
tation of these Is excellent and typhoid
is infrequent But when the army goes
into encampment in time of peace or
into action in time of war, the typhoid
demon Immediately gets busy. Typhoid
is a country disease. It lurks perpet
ually In communities where the sewer
system Is inefficient or non-existent.
When the army goes Into the country it
enters a realm of danger that is equal
to the enemy's fire. When the man
from the city takes his family into the
country all other conditions may be
Ideal, but the typhoid germ lies In wait.
The first necessity from a govern
mental standpoint Is the protection of
the army from this danger. That pro
tection Is rapidly being brought about.
ROSS IV, KING
Island Contented and Happy.
scorpions, beetles and one staggering
but well-authenticated monkey all
have assisted In demonstrating the life
of the outer world. The invaders have
not been welcomed, however. The na
tives have exiled the rats, for In
stance, to an island of their own, but
some have escaped to the Inhabited
islands and have developed a curious
capacity for climbing trees and chew
ing off the cocoanuts for food.
With the planting of every vegetable
springs a new parasite as though from
the empty air. Whence It comes nobody
knows; It Is Nature's conjuring trick.
But it gets right down to work at once
on the food provided for It by Mother
Earth. For studying the problems of
the survival of the fittest and variation
of species, Cocos lias many advantages.
Think of this realm! The most per
fect coral island In the world, ranged
like a necklace of pearls round a still,
blue lagoon. Outside, a stiff southeast
trade wind preserves an even tempera
ture. Green palms wave over the huts
of the stately, curious natives, over the
prosperous, unsweated factories, where
labor unions or wage scales are as yet
undreamed of, and over the broad, com
fortable palace of the monarch of this
new Eden. Over the peaceful shores
passes a cable which is never tapped
for news, but clicks onward with the
ceaseless clatter of the work-a-day
world past dreaming, unconscious Cocos.
The orderly populace Is menaced by
no police or military forces. No agita
tion bruits about to revise the tariff,
for there is no tariff; no reforms are
set on foot to extend the franchise, for
there is no franchise. No sensational
writer excites the Jingoism of the "Co
cans," for there is no press; no man
pines to get Into society, for there is no
society such as a democracy reveals,
only elementary aristoracy. There has
been but one crime in the history of the
island, and no divorce case. Typhoons
are much more oommon than discontent
and there have only been four of
those upheavals. Said I not at the be
ginning that Utopia had been found!
The next stn that suirsrests itself
the protection of the vacationist irom
the one great danger that he faces.
The people from the cities who go into
the country In the Summer are general
ly of the educated class and the class
that is Intelligently seeking health
benefit. It is expected that these will
be the next to offer themselves for vac
cination. When they do the rmiltituUn
of disease that results from this jour
neying into the country will be largely
done away with.
The people who go habitually into
the South, into the tropics, into the
rural districts for business, should soon
resort to vaccination and probably will.
There is the great rural population
which Is habitually the source of infec
tion and arousing those to the needs of
the new treatment is the greatest of
Typhoid is a contagious disease and
transmits itself from one person to an
other. This, however, must be through
an actual contact, usually through a
person whose hands have come in con
tact with the germs handling the food
of other persons. When there is in thp
family or the . neighborhood a person
suffering from typhoid the gorms that
the body of that person give off may
enter the water supply, the milk of the
neighborhood, the food of the family.
The hands that nurse the patient for
instance, may wash the dishes. In this
way the disease is transmitted.
In most contagious disease a similar
principle exists. The rational system
In typhoid as I nthe others is isola
tion of the patient. This scheme works
and makes extermination possible in
most diseases, but is hardly effective
in the case of typhoid. The difficulty
here lies in the fact that the patient re
covering from an attack may or may
not become entirely free from the dis
ease. Three persons in a nunarea w
have had typhoid do not throw it en
tirely out of the system. They ap
parently recover but the germs remain
in their systems and their associates
are constantly menaced. You or I may
be a carrier of typhoid and a constant
danger to the people who are aroui.d
us. We may have had the disease 20
years ago and the germs may yet be
In our systems. Here and there, oc
casionally, we fall a little short of
absolute cleanliness and as a result a
member of our family, an intimate or
a friend, comes down with the fever
and we have caused it. although we
may not be aware of It. This occa
sional chronic carrier of typhoid s the
element that keeps the disease always
with us. From this individual the dis
ease may break out at any point at
any time. For there are and always
will be people who handle the food or
the effects of others without first wash
ing their hands. The unwashed hands
of housemaids and housekeepers result
in the death of thousands of people
eVThereeisr'the case of "Typhoid Mary"
in New York. She was a cook in many
households. Wherever she went ty
phoid followed in her wake. She had
suffered from the disease many years
ago and the germs persisted In her sys
stem. They got Into the food of the
families In which she worked, for It Is
suspected that Mary was J OTeP'
zealous as to cleanliness. In the , end
she was tested for the germs, found to
possess them, and isolated.
There are thousands ot Typhoid
Marys'' running about the country
Soml member of your "hd;
neighbor, a servant may be a carrier
of the d sease. It Is because of these
thVt the complaint crop. Lf .s tt
vear in many places. But for this it
cluld be ut toP rout. The Army sur
geons have applied the test to thou
fanSs o individuals selected at random
and in 2 or 3 percent the menace has
beifntneU"Typhold Marys" were careful
as to cleanliness, they would no longer
be. a menace. But they are not careful
and therefore the body politic must : pre
fect itself against them. The Army
Medical School is demonstrating that
?h!. may be done through vaccination.
Then there is the brand new phase
of the work. These men of the Army
have recently attacked the disease it
self through vaccinations. When an
individual is found to have typhoid he
is immediately vaccinated. This vac
cination develops more rapidly than
does the disease. Its object and effect
is the development of an antitoxin, an
element in the blood that will make
tie dl-eaee ineffective. The idea is new
and the men of science who are hand
ling it refuse to make any statement
until it has been demonstrated over and
over again that it is effective. It may
be said however, that some marvelous
ur s have been effected in this way
They would indicate that vaccination
may reduce typhoid which has alreadj
developed to a disease that is of but
half the force that it has under the old
""soothe men of the medical school of
the Army are getting the point where
they are willing to stake the f repute -tions
on the benefit of vaccination. They
believe that they have proven as a sci
entific fact that this is he method In
which the disease should be fSht
They believe that the system will be
the means of saving some hundreds of
thousands of good American live i and
that this is no mean accomplishment.
They knov? further, that the va ue of
their demonstrations will depend large
ly upon an understanding of them get
ting to the people, for the time will
probably never come when this sort of
vaccination will be mandatory.
So they hold the man who tells the
story of the new method may save
more lives than all the Carnegie heroes
yet enumerated. The Government has
prepared vaccine in abundance and will
freely furnish it to practitioners in
whom it has confidence, men whom they
believe will handle it properly and who
will agree to report results. It is be
ing scattered broadcast in this way and
soon all the world may come under ltf
beneficent effects.