2 DDT — ^Killer of Killers 



brought under control until the warmer weather of March 

 or April had arrived. When typhus cases increased to 40 a 

 day in December and to 60 a day in January, and people 

 were dying in the gutters of Naples, it was evident to all that 

 a full-scale epidemic had arrived, and that by February — un- 

 less something drastic could be done — 500 people a day 

 would be coming down with this disease of unclean liness. 



The American soldiers had been vaccinated against 

 typhus, but it was impossible to vaccinate the entire popula- 

 tion of Naples. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, 

 Brigadier General Leon Fox, Field Director of the American 

 Typhus Commission in Cairo, flew to Naples to see what he 

 could do. General Fox knew about the magic new wonder 

 killer DDT and how it had protected our troops against lice 

 during the invasion of Africa. He decided to use it in an 

 experiment of tremendous magnitude. In the month of 

 January alone, 1,300,000 people in Naples were dusted with 

 DDT powder, and as more refugees entered the city they 

 were immediately given this treatment. The typhus epidem- 

 ic passed as rapidly as it had started — by the middle of Feb- 

 ruary it was completely under control. This was the first 

 time on record that a typhus epidemic had been stopped in 

 mid-winter; and for the first time in history that scourge of 

 war — typhus — had been licked. 



The Baf-fle of the Centuries 



Man, throughout the countless centuries since he first 

 appeared on earth, has gradually managed to fight his way 

 to the top of the animal kingdom. The giant mammoth 

 and dinosaur exist only as skeletons in museums; the tiger 



