14 The Philippine Journal of Science 1920 
During the Russo-Japanese war, 200,000 cases of beriberi oc- 
curred in the Japanese Army. Beriberi prevailed extensively 
among the Philippine Scouts. As late as 1909 nearly 104 per 
thousand of the Scouts had beriberi. By 1910 the army sur- 
geons on duty with the Philippine Scouts had eliminated beri- 
beri by a change of dietary, in part by the use of undermilled 
rice. 
The incidence of venereal disease in the army has been reduced 
to one-third of its former prevalence. How? By prophylactic 
stations ready of access to all soldiers exposed to infection; by 
lectures to soldiers by medical officers; appeals by posters and 
by moving-picture shows used as illustrated lectures. We first 
try to educate the soldier to codperate with us in preventing 
venereal disease and, when this fails, by court-martial if he 
fails to use the prophylactic means provided, and by depriving 
him of all pay while on sick report from venereal disease. The 
civilian practitioner may smile and say: “Yes, we know the 
soldiers have lots, but what has that to do with us?” Well! 
Statistics of the World War show that 96 per cent of the vene- 
real disease in the army was contracted prior to entry into the 
military service. If civilian practitioners, as represented by 
boards of health, etc., would employ methods similar to those 
of the military surgeons, and we could eliminate that 96 per 
cent we get from civil life, maybe, I will not say positively, 
but maybe we could eliminate venereal disease in the army 
as we did in great part malarial fever, typhoid fever, yellow 
fever, and beriberi. 
_ Venereal diseases, gentlemen, are a more serious menace to 
health and happiness among the civilians of present-day civili- 
zation than all the other diseases mentioned. Civilian com- 
munities have never made any other than desultory and inef- 
fective efforts to rid themselves of venereal infections. The 
army Medical Department has shown the way. Will the ci- 
vilian practitioners as a body avail themselves of these proven 
methods? 
The advance of the civilian practitioner in curative medicine 
is illustrated by the introduction of diphtheria antitoxin, which 
has saved hundreds of thousands of lives; by Flexner’s serum 
_for cerebro-spinal meningitis; by Pasteur’s treatment for hydro- 
phobia infection, and so on. While the military surgeon has 
shown great eagerness to adopt the curative methods introduced 
by the civilian practitioner, the latter has not shown the same 
