134 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY 



fever in our regular army since the Civil War has 

 been: For the first decade (1868-1877), 9.5 per 

 10,000 of mean strength ; for the second decade 

 (1878-1887), 10.8 per 10,000; for the third decade 

 (1888-1897), 5.5 per 10,000. This last rate com- 

 pares favourably with that of many of our principal 

 cities : for example, it is exceeded by the typhoid 

 death-rate of the city of Washington, which is 7.81 

 per 10,000 (average of ten years, 1888-1897); by that 

 of the city of Chicago, which is 6.44 per 10,000; by 

 that of Pittsburg, which is 8.8 per 10,000. As a re- 

 sult of .unsanitary conditions existing in the camps in 

 which our troops were hastily assembled at the outset 

 of the Spanish-American War, the typhoid death-rate 

 in our army of volunteers and regulars during the 

 year ending April 30, 1899, was more than twenty- 

 two times as great as it had been in our regular army 

 during the decade immediately preceding the war 

 period. As compared with the Civil War, however, 

 there was a decided improvement, the typhoid mor- 

 tality for the first year of the Civil War having been 

 197.1 per 10,000 of mean strength and for the Span- 

 ish-American War 123.7 per 10,000. 



Experience shows that new levies of troops are es- 

 pecially subject to typhoid fever and other infectious 

 " camp diseases," not only because of lack of disci- 

 pline and consequent difficulty in the enforcement of 



