336 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



mumps and scarlet fever has been observed at Camp Custer 

 and at Camp Wheeler. 



Camp Wadsworth reports that their division made up of 

 Guardsmen from the larger cities of New York State was 

 practically free from disease until March when about 1500 

 draft men from the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky 

 were received. Their arrival had a marked effect upon the 

 disease rate. These men soon developed meningitis, pneu- 

 monia and the minor communicable diseases. Their nonef- 

 fective rate was three times that of the original division. 



The epidemiologist at Camp Doniphan points out the un- 

 usually low disease incidence among city troops as compared 

 with those from the country. The I38th Infantry and I28th 

 Machine Gun Battalion were recruited from St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri. Their annual pneumonia morbidity rates from October 

 to March were 15 to 25 respectively. The I37th Infantry and 

 1 29th Field Artillery were from the small towns of Kansas. 

 Their corresponding rates were 65. and 50. respectively. 



Of course the men who lived through the winter of 1917-18 

 in our large camps became thoroughly urbanized so far as con- 

 cerned their reactions to crowd diseases. There is probably 

 no city in the world in which contact between individuals is so 

 close and so intimate as in a large military camp. It is gener- 

 ally believed that the greatest dangers from over crowding, 

 so far as the spread of disease is concerned, are found in the 

 sleeping quarters. This certainly was not true of our camps. 

 The most dangerous contact is during the waking hours, at 

 mess, at drill, in canteens, in assembly halls, when every one 

 is coughing and each inhaling the spray from his neighbor. 

 There is no evidence that cramped sleeping quarters played 

 an important role in the spread of disease in our camps. In- 

 deed, some camps with the most crowded sleeping quarters 

 had low death rates. The writer was in an assembly hall, with 

 every one of quite 5030 seats occupied and it seemed that at 

 least every other man was coughing. Measurements were 

 made and it was found that the greatest possible distance be- 



