ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



Philadelphia, Pa., July, 191 7. 



Insects and War. 



Unfortunately the lessons of the past have not been sufficient- 

 1)' taken to heart and at the present time we are confronted with 

 the grim destroyer in many forms. Every soldier thinks he 

 will be one of the fortunate individuals and escape some death- 

 dealing missile, but he is much more likely to be the victim of 

 some low and minute form of either animal or vegetable or- 

 ganism. 



In spite of the great advance of modern science and knowl- 

 edge gained, its practical application is relatively very defec- 

 tive and inefficient. The mind of the medical profession runs 

 largely to therapeutics — the application of drugs to the cure 

 of disease, but unfortunately remedial measures can't compare 

 in value with preventive medicine. The sick soldier is a 

 distinct loss as a fighting unit and is a menace and expense to 

 the Government as he needs hospitals, doctors, nurses and 

 medicines. 



A few references to the past may enlighten the thoughtful. 

 During the Civil War, on the Union side, 93.369 soldiers were 

 killed and 186,216 died from disease. In the Crimean War 

 4,602 were killed and 17,580 died victims of disease. A re- 

 markable example of mortality from disease and low death 

 rate from wounds is shown by the figures from the French 

 Expedition to Madagascar in 1894, 29 being killed and 7,000 

 dying from disease. In the Spanish-American War only 454 

 Americans were killed and 5,277 died from disease, mostly 

 typhoid fever carried by house-flies. A more specific instance 

 of disease morbidity and mortality is shown by what happened 

 to the Fir^t Pennsylvania Infantry in 1898. There were 792 

 men in the regiment and 169 cases of typhoid fever and twelve 

 deaths. In many of the camps in this country and Cuba men 

 were compelled to walk through human excrement to get to the 

 latrines, and the food in the mess tents was black with flies. 

 The mouths of the sick soldiers in the hospitals and hospital 



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