The North Platte semi-weekly tribune. (North Platte, Neb.) 1895-1922, March 30, 1917, Image 6

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    PhomIIStIId
Hk D in m iU
PIE
lecncai Discoveries
rrvina ouse
HUSSEIN, KING OF THE HEJAZ
newest r
These filthy pests distribute among people germs
of typhoid and other bowel diseases, tuberculosis,
infectious blood poison and even leprosy Be
gin your summer war on them now:: Clean the
premises thoroughly and burn trash
I f A fV 111 switttitwiti Iwtnuii Mi la tin trrttut.
est menace to 1 1 ti mil ti life In tomporuto
regions llio highest medical nnil scion
tide authorities In thu United States
n tt1 It'll fsti it ti It flit rtfwttt 1 1 x itnl (i(t In
declaring.
The dissemination through this In
sect of the epidemic, Infantile paralysis,
which Inst year killed thousands of New York's
children Is hut one of the many counts in the In
dictment against the llltliy Ily. Infantile paraly
sis Is peculiarly shocking hecauso It deforms chil
dren ho cruelly, hut In Its destruction of life It Is
far less serious limn typhoid fever, which we
now know to he lately a fly-home disease. Simi
larly the fly probably causes far more mortality
through Its Instrumentality In spreading' tubercu
losis than as n carrier of Infantile paralysis.
All over the world scientists are studying' tho
fly, discovering new dangers to public health
caused by It and suggesting new methods of ex
terminating It.
Dr. L. 0. Howard, the chief entomologist of tho
United States government, now suggests that tho
name "typhoid fly" should be given to the common
house lly, because tho latter name falls to suggest
tho deadly character.
Mr. Howard tells bow the deadly character of
the lly was proved by feeding flies with pure cul
tures of the typhoid bacillus. Material from the
bodies of tho Insects and lly-specks made by them
were thon examined and found to contain the
bacilli. This material was Injected Into animals
and proved to be virulent.
Flics Carry Typhoid.
There were 250,000 oases of typhoid In the Unit
ed States last year, and over .15,000 proved fatal.
During tho Spanish-American war flies which had
swarmed over Infected matter In the lime-strewn
pits walked over tho soldiers food, leaving traces
of lime. Jinny cases of typhoid occurred, killing
far more than bullets. Olllcers whoso tents were
screened from flies showed fewer cases. Typhoid
disappeared In winter, when flies were no longer
about. Infected water was not an Important fac
tor In these camps, hut n majority of cases must
have been due to the flies. More than 80 per cent
of tho total deaths In the war were caused by
typhoid.
The dnnger of Infection Is greatly Increased by
thu fact that typhoid germs may remain active In
u person's Intestines long after he has recovered
from fever. Dr. Georgo A. Sopor recently discov
ered a enso of n cook employed by several fami
lies In tho vicinity of New York. She bad recov
ered completely from typhoid fever, but sho gavo
tho disease to members of every family where sho
was employed. Four other cases of this kind aro
mentioned by Doctor Howard.
Spread Enteric Fever.
During the Boer war 100,000 British soldiers
wero laid up at one time by enteric fever, now
shown to bavo been spread by Hies, Profiting by
such lessons, tho United States authorities on thu
Panama canal work protected refuse against flies,
and this, together with thu careful screening of
houses, adopted primarily as a defense against
malaria, reduced typhoid to a negligible quantity.
A long Berlea of observations Is being conducted,
showing that tiles piny an important part In
spreading Asiatic cholera. The Itrltlsh warship
Superb, in the Mediterranean, suffered from an
epidemic of cholera, which continued while at sen,
but on tho disappearance of flies It ceased. Pro
fesRors Tlzzonl and Cuttanl of Italy, In 1880, found
active cholera germs in the deposits of tiles caught
In tho cholera wards at Bologna, Italy.
Cost Millions a Year.
Doctor Howard says tho decrenso in tho vital
assets of our country through typhoid fever in a
hingio year is moro than ?:I50,000,000.
Thu typhoid lly Is also a disseminator of tuber
culosis. Dr. Frederick T. Lord, tho Boston scien
tist, says:
"Flics may Ingest tubercular sputum and ex
crete tubercle bacilli, the vlrulendo of which may
3nst for at least tlfteen days."
Matter from tuberculous patients must, there
fore, not be allowed to come In contact with flies,
and tho pntlents should ho screened for their own
good and that of the rest of tho community.
Drs. W. M. Esten and O, J. Mason of Storrs ex
periment station, Connecticut, who counted C50 to
0,000,000 bacteria on flies, observed that these In
Beets carried contamination from the pigpens to
the milk In dairies.
Life History of Fly.
"Tho only remedy for this serious condition of
things," they say, "is to remove tho pigpen as far
as posslblo from tho dnlry and dwelling house.
Kxtrume euro Rhould bo taken in, keeping llles
out of tho cow stable, milk rooms npd dwellings."
Doctor Howard has traced tho llfo blHtory of
tho fly, finding thnt 120 eggs aro laid by a slnglo
female, and thnt in Washington In midsummer a
generation Is produced every ten days. In ex
perimenting ho found that his flies would breed
only In horso waste, but tho evidence Indicates
that they breed In various kinds of filth. His con
clusion, bowovcr, is that tho vast mnjorlty must
como from horso Btnblcs.
As tested out and recommended by the United
States department of agriculture, sprinkling and
soaking such a pest heap with a solution of one
luilf pound of powdered liolleboro In ten gnllons of
water (stirring well and allowing It to stand for
LM hours), will destroy nil tho maggots, eggs and
larvae which aro then present. Almost oqunlty
good rusults, although not qulto so certain, can ho
secured by sprinkling freely with powdered borax
mid then pouring water over, so as to carry It
tlowu nil through tho muss. Thu amount of hello
bore solution required Is about a gallon to tho
bushel of manuru.
A recent calculation of tho fly's rnte of lnr uiso.
Out of tho maelstrom of tho great
wur a queer new kingdom has arisen.
A portion of the ancient kingdom
of Arabia has asserted Its indepen
dence of the Turks. A descendant of
the prophet Mohnmmed has mounted
tho throne of his ancestors. Ho as
pires to revive the former glories of
Islam, tho rellgio-polltlcal empire that
was founded at Mecca and Medina and
nt tho summit of Its greatness had its
capital nt Bagdad, where tho Caliph
Hurun-nl-Rnschld ruled and where,
mnny of "Tho Arabian Nights" ro
mances wore staged.
The new ruler Is Hussein Ben All,'
until recently known as Grand Shereef
of Mecca, lie has taken tho title of
king of the Hejaz because ho Is In
possession of the sncred cities of Mec
ca and Medina, which originally formed
the nucleus of the great Mohammedan
empire. Hussein Ben All has received:
at least temporary recognition from
tho United States, which has ascertained that there Is no other effective
authority In bis territory. He has received full recognition from tho gov
ernments of England, France, Italy, Russia and Japan.
King Hussein Ben All Is the chief living descendant of the prophet Mo
hammed through bis favorite daughter Fatlma. Consequently he possesses
higher claims than the sultan of Turkey, In the opinion of muny Mohamme
dans, to be caliph of Bagdad, which wus the chief temporal position of
ancient Islam.
Kvs I
mm,mmm
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF ARMY
based on Professor Howard's experiments, has
been made nnd shows that one fly can have be
tween June 1 and September 28, -1,35:1,05 1,072,000,
000,000,000 descendants.
Prof. S. A. Forbes, stato entomologist of Illi
nois, found that house llles breed freely In decay
ing animal carcasses, a point of significance In
connection with war conditions.
It Is most Important to have an efllclent flytrap.
One known as "the Minnesota flytrap" appears to
ho the best constructed. It Is planned on the
principle of having a box with a hole beneath It, n
piece of halt under the hole and sullkient space
for tho fly to walk under tho box. Tho box Is
entered through a funnel that Is a decapitated
cone. Tho fly, hnvlng gorged himself on tho bait,
will, according to his Invariable habit, fly upward
through the funnel nnd become Imprisoned In the
box. He will not fly out.
Health Officers Responsible.
The courts have, passed upon the question of
damages for a sufferer from typhoid who could
trace his Illness to llles feeding upon the filth of
sewage. A few years ago n man living In Germnn
town, Philadelphia, recovered heavy damages from
the city for his illness, which he proved was
caused by u stream flowing through his yard which
had been polluted by sowago from a house ten
anted by a typhoid patient. The defense rolled
upon proof thnt the plaintiff had neither drunk nor
bathed In the stream, but an entomologist con
vinced the Jury that ho had contracted tho dis
ease through the medium of llles, which hud car
ried the Infection from tho strcnm to tho food
exposed to their visits In his house.
Scourge of European War.
A horrifying form of the lly peril has boon en
countered during tho present European war. This
Is tho presence of myriads of llles that have bred
on the bodies of tho dead soldiers and enrry
septicemia (blood poisoning), and other diseases.
Profiting by tho experience of tho Spanlsh-Amer-lcnn
and Boer wars, the mllltnry authorities pro
tected tho jilts In permanent trenches and camps
against flies, but thousands of dead bodies are
lying In tho shell-swept nren between opposing
trenches, where It Is absolutely Impossible to carry
out sanitary measures.
IS DEATH PAINFUL? I
Tho physical pain of death depends, I suppose,
on the particular cause of death, says n writer in
London Tit Bits. Naturally, death from starvation
or cancer must ho very much moro painful than
death from old ago. Dying Is probably moru pain
ful than death Itself. At some most painful death
beds thcru seems to como u period of culm when
thu epd dnuws near. I think it is a great pity Uiat
for the sake of relations a death agony is some
times prolonged by tho usu of powerful drugs. I
remember a doctor saying to mo at tho death bed
of a young olllcer: "If there were relations hero wo
should keep him nllvo for a few hours." Why
should a dying man bo kept nllvo for theso senti
mental reasons?
I supposo a great deal of tho pnlnfulness of denth
Is duo to our struggling against it. Just ns when
wo resist nn anesthetic, it causes us great discom
fort, while if wo meekly submit to It thu sensation
Is delightful, so with denth.
Tho ronson we resist Is thnt wo cling to life. This
does not necessarily mean that we ura afraid to
die! or that wo have doubts about Immortality, and
want to have us much of this world as posslblo for
fear there Is no other. Tho greatest strugglo for
life I ever witnessed was on tho part of a young
spiritualist, who most certainly bolleved In tho
next world. He simply refused to die, nnd did
literally llvo some days longer because of ids de
termination. It was rather splendid, this Insistence
on life, though It probably cost him a lot of pain.
On the other hand, I remember a young soldier
In Franco who died from sheer luck of wanting to
live. Tho doctor told mo that ho need not have
died If ho had only resolved to live.
Tho London Lancet announces that the spread
of typhus, an eruptive fever quite different from
typhoid, has been traced to flies. Typhus has al
ways occurred In dirty and starving communities.
It has been very prevalent In Russia, and Is said
to have been largely responsible for stopping the
flrst Russian Invnslon of Austriu, because It killed
and prostrated so many men.
The spreading of lnfnntlle paralysis virus on tho
feet nnd In the gullet of the house lly, as observed
by Doctor Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute, hns
already been thoroughly explained. Experiments
have also been made Indicating thnt the poison
of this disease is conveyed by the bite of tho stn
bio lly very much ns mnlarla Is conveyed by the
blto of tho mosquito.
These experiments aro thus described by Dr. C
K. Wlnslow, an expert on Insect pests, of the
American Museum of Natural nistdry:
Tests With Monkeys.
"Prof. M. J. Rosonnu of the Harvard Medical
school, succeeded In producing infnntllo paralysis
In six out of twelve monkeys bitten by stable
llles which had been allowed to feed on other
monkeys suffering from tho dlsense.
"Professor Rosennu's work hns slnco been con
firmed by Doctors Anderson and Frost of tho Unit
ed States public health service. There Is, of course,
no certnlnty thnt the dlscnso Is ulwoys transmitted
by tho stable fly. The work of Doctor Flexner
and of U10 Swedish observers and the occurrenco
of a certain proportion of cases In cold weather
strongly suggest thnt sometimes Infantile paralysis
may bo spread by direct contact between human
beings or In other vays than by fly bites. On the
otner nanu, u seems ccriain mo uiiuig sunne uy
Is one moans by which tho disease Is conveyed;
nnd tho seasonal and geographical prevalence of
tho epidemics make It seem probable that this Is
the usual and most Important means.
"The habits of the stnble lly differ widely from
those of tho house fly. The stable lly is a biting
lly, feeding on the blood of the higher vertebrates.
It Is found In the vicinity of dwellings, particularly
whore Iiorses and cattle ure kept, but It Is apt to
remain outdoors In warm, sunny places, and does
not como Into the bouse much except at night nrid
before rain."
Another case I remember of a young Tommy who
had a long, weary Illness from an awful wound.
He, too, no doubt, was bound to die, but he, too, lost
heart. It was arranged that ho should go to Eng
land, but ho had censed to care to do so, and re
fused. Tho end enmo rapidly after that.
1 think those Instances show that much depends
mi will nnwer. Mv own father wnS n mnn of ex
traordinary vitality. A month beforo his death his
doctor said to mo : "By all tho laws ho ought to be
(Wad now." It was dllllcult to believe a few hours
before bis death, at the age of ninety, thnt ho was
a dying man. Ills again was a case of thu most
absolute belief In the other world, coupled with nn
Intense desire to live and not dlo a moment too
soon.
Probably tho greatest pain In denth Is mentnl
pain. I can conceive a wasted life, a stupid life,
nnd, still more, a wicked life, making It very pain
ful for a man to die.
Brig. Gen. John L. Chamberlain,
recently promoted, has assumed the
duties of Inspector general of the
army, vice Brig. Gen. Ernest A. Gar
Hngton, retired for age. The new head
of Inspector general's department Is
from New York nnd wns educated at
the Geneseo State Normnl school of
New York nnd tho United States Mili
tary academy, from which Institution
he was graduated In the class of 18S0.
He served In the artillery corps for
10 years, and In November, 1000, was
appointed a mnjor In the Inspector
general's department. During tho
Spnntsh war he was chief ordnance of
ficer of volunteers. From 1881 to 1888
ho wns Instructor at the United States
Military academy, und in 1800 he was
graduated from the Artillery school.
He took part In the cnmpalgn against
tho Sioux Indiuns in 1890 and 1891.
Subsequently he served as chief ord
nance officer of the department of Mis
souri, as Instructor of military science nnd tactics at the Peeksklll Military
academy, as military attache of the United States embassy at VIennn, Aus
tria, with the United States siege train and the Seventh army corps In tho
campaign against tho Moros in the Philippines, as Inspector general of tho
Pacific division, and as inspector general of the Eastern department at New
York.
CENSOR OF NAVY NEWS
In tho nnvy department nt" Wash
ington, Lieut. Chnrles Belknup is
holding down the censor's desk, hold
ing it down with 100 pounds of brawn
and muscle some of which, by the
way, he Is likely to lose if the ex
pected happens and tho 24-hour cen
sorship Is put In operation.
Tho new navy censor will be able
to tnko care of himself In any scrap
with tho press his censorship may
bring forth. He was on the navy
football team for three years and wns
captain of the team In 1912, his last
year. Thon he rowed In the navy crew.
Ten of tho fourteen years since ho
loft Annapolis, Lieutenant Belknap has
spent at sen. He served successively
on the Koarsarge, Hopkins, MacDon
ougb, Laurence, Maryland, and New
Hampshire, and then In 1909 he had
his flrst shore detail, two years at tho
torpedo station nt Newport. He was
back to sea again In 1911, first to tho
Gunntannmo naval station, and then to the command of the destroytr Amnion
under Cnpt. W. S. Sims ns flotilla commnnder.
In 101B Lieutenant Belknap was detached to enter the Wnr college at
Newport, graduating with tho class of 1910, and Inter coming to Washington
duty in the offlco of Admiral Benson, chief of naval operations.
Llko most big men of the husky, athletic type", Lieutenant Belknap Is as
docile as n lamb. Some of tho newspaper men, popping bespectacled heads
into the censor's den for the first time, took In his height and breadth nn-
prnlslngly, but they nil wero Immediately disarmed by a genial smile.
NEW DIRECTOR OF THE MINT
3
Early Days of Egypt.
Predynnstle Egypt consisted of various petty
states ranged along the banks of tho Nile this
000 years before Christ. The Egyptians had nl-
ready mastered the art of mnklng textile fabrics by
spinning and weaving, and the mon wore kilts and
tho women long robes. Wonderful pottery was
made, though this was dono by molding, as the pot
ter's wheel was unknown. Gold, stone, Ivory anil
hone wero made Into ornaments und utensils. Bouts
wero used and the art of sailing was discovered.
Human Resolves Weak.
What mockeries are our most firm resolves,
To will Is ours, hut not to execute. Wo map our
future llko somo unknown const, nnd sny. hero
Is a harbor, there a rock ; tho one wo will nttnln,
tl.o other shun, nnd wo do neither; somo chunco
gale springs up, and hears us far o'er some un-
fathomed sea.- L. E. Laudon.
' Ray Baker, tho newly appointed
director of the mint, gained thorough
knowledge of metallurgy in tho Ne
vada gold fields, where ho was born.
The son of a former chief counsel of
tho Union Pnclflc railroad, Ray, as
lie Is known to everyone In Washing
ton ns well as lp Russia, whero he
served as private secretary to a for
mer nmbassador at Petrograd, began
his career as a prospector. Behind a
train of live burros he went Into Death
valley and established a claim, which
probably will one day put him In the
millionaire class.
Ills mine Is so far from civilization
that bo must await tho development of
tho country befor' expecting to reap
his harvest. A mure conveniently lo
catcd mine, however, supplies young
Baker ho is i the thirties with
enough cash to support n high-priced
automobile and nn assortment of
clothes thnt are the envy of .well-
dressed Wnshlngtonlnns. Baker was ono of the nctlve young Wilson booXern
who aided In turning Republican California Into the Wilson column last
November.
i