BACILLUS TYPHOSUS 527 



excellent reports submitted by Major Russell of the U. S. 

 Army Medical Corps, suffices to illustrate the protective 

 value of antityphoid vaccination: 



In 1898, during the Spanish- American War, when no 

 preventive vaccination was practised, there were assembled 

 at Jacksonville, Florida, 10,759 troops, among whom there 

 were certainly 1729 cases of typhoid fever, and including 

 those cases that were probably typhoid fever, this figure 

 is increased to 2,693 cases with 248 deaths. Contrast that 

 with the following: 



In 1911 there were assembled for maneuvers along the 

 Mexican frontier about 20,000 United States troops. All 

 were vacinnated against typhoid fever; with the result 

 that after four months in camps (about the same time as 

 the men remained in the Jacksonville camp) there developed 

 one case of typhoid fever. This case did not prove fatal. 

 It should be said that the disease was known to exist among 

 residents in the immediate vicinity of this camp and that 

 the soldiers were allowed free access to the infected 

 districts. 



By the adoption of compulsory vaccination in the Army, 

 typhoid fever has been practically eliminated. For the 

 entire United States the typhoid mortality for the year 1913 

 was at the rate of 12.7 per 100,000, while for the entire 

 army it was per 100,000.* 



It is needless to pursue the argument further; though it 

 should be said that the vaccination is harmless to the 

 individual. 



Major Whitmore of the Medical Corps of the United 

 States Army states that of 130,000 adults vaccinated, 97 

 per cent, gave no disagreeable reaction. 



1 For a discussion of typhoid fever during the war see Annual Reports of 

 the Surgeon-General of the Army, 1919 and 1920. 



