1150 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



in other words, the health of these sol- 

 diers in camp, sometimes living in deep 

 mud and at other times in clouds of dust 

 and under a semi-tropical sun, was better 

 than in barracks surrounded by the com- 

 forts and sanitary appliances of post 

 Hfe." 



Further proof of the many opportuni- 

 ties which the soldiers had to contract 

 typhoid is given in Major Russell's re- 

 port: 



''There is no doubt but that the hy- 

 giene and health of the men received 

 almost ideal care ; the difficulty was, how- 

 ever, that the men were not confined to 

 camp, but had liberty and opportunity 

 to visit the neighboring cities of San An- 

 tonio and Galveston. Thousands spent 

 more or less time in these cities, where 

 they dined and lunched, and drank and 

 slept ; in fact, became, for the time being, 

 a part of the community. 



"In Galveston, especially, where a ten 

 minutes' ride carried one from the camp 

 to the heart of the city, the number of 

 men visiting town was large. The sol- 

 dier always has a good appetite, and he 

 drank and ate everywhere — in good res- 

 taurants and bad, in the numerous lunch- 

 wagons, and at street - corner stands. 

 Fruits and pies and sweets in enormous 

 quantities were purchased from huck- 

 sters lined up along the camp boundaries ; 

 they even invaded the company streets, 

 carrying their various sorts of indigesti- 

 ble and infectious products from tent to 

 tent. The best kind of camp sanitation 

 could not keep down typhoid in the pres- 

 ence of all these possible chances of in- 

 fection, if typhoid existed to any extent 

 among the local population. 



"During this period of four months 

 there were reported to the health office 

 49 cases of typhoid, with 19 deaths, 

 among the civil population of the city of 

 San Antonio, and in Galveston 192 cases 

 were recorded during the same period. 

 These two cities can therefore serve as 

 controls and indicate what might have 

 happened to our troops in the absence of 

 vaccination. 



AN IMMUNIZED ARMY 



"Aside from the sources of infection 

 in the adjoining cities, we must believe 



that the men were also exposed to the 

 influence of an unknown number of 

 chronic bacillus-carriers among our own 

 men. There is every reason to believe 

 that among 18,000 men there were one 

 or more carriers in each regiment, yet 

 they spread no disease, and one of the 

 most important conclusions to be drawn 

 from our recent experience is that in 

 vaccination we have the only effective 

 protection against the elusive carrier." 



Complete confidence in vaccination was 

 established by this epoch-making achieve- 

 ment, and, upon the recommendation of 

 the Surgeon General, the Secretary of 

 War ordered, on September 30, 191 1, the 

 compulsory vaccination of every person 

 in the army under 45 years of age, and 

 of all recruits. This was carried out as 

 promptly as possible, and, as the result, 

 the United States has today an "immun- 

 ized" army, not a single case of typhoid 

 having thus far been reported among the 

 troops in this country during 1913. This 

 record, compared with that of any year 

 previous to the beginning of vaccination, 

 seems little short of miraculous. 



In no other army is anti-typhoid vacci- 

 nation mandatory, and no other is en- 

 tirely immunized against the disease. 

 Our navy soon followed the precedent 

 established by the army, and it is today 

 immunized with vaccine prepared in the 

 laboratory of the Army Medical School. 



SOME EIGURKS THAT PROVE 



In a paper recently read before the 

 Congress of American Physicians and 

 Surgeons in Washington, Major Russell 

 included a table showing the incidence of 

 typhoid in the army in the United States 

 during the period 1903-1913. These sta- 

 tistics were gathered with the utmost ac- 

 curacy and tell the story in a nutshell : 



Typhoid Fever, U. S. Army, in the United 

 States 



Five years prior to 1908 (average per 



year) 160 



Two years after vaccination had begun 



(year 191 1 ) ._ 44 



Three years after vaccination had begun 



(year 1912) 18 



First nine months of 1913 (latest figures 



available) o 



Since 1908 a prodigious amount of 

 work has been accomplished. The vari- 



