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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
deadly epidemics, not only in sections directly affected but also in 
other parts of the world, especially those to which combatants re¬ 
turned. The world-wide character of this conflict makes the latter 
phase of great importance to all nations, since the removal of military 
restrictions, unless there be a rigid sanitary supervision, would give 
unexampled opportunities for carriers of deadly infections to make their 
way into other countries and spread disease. This applies to insect 
borne infections as well as to other maladies. Only the most thorough 
precautions can prevent extensive outbreaks and certain safeguards 
are not possible unless there is an intimate and general knowledge of 
the habits of insects serving as carriers. 
The heavy hand of poverty is destined to rest upon extensive areas 
of the earth and with that may be expected a lowering of sanitary 
standards and a consequent increase in disease. It is most important 
that this latter be prevented so far as possible so that post-war con¬ 
ditions may not be worse than those at present obtaining. This can 
be accomplished by the adoption of the most effective methods for the 
control of disease and here the entomologist is in position to render an 
exceedingly valuable service not only to his country but to the entire 
world. 
The vital importance of the effective control of disease is indicated by 
the following excerpts from the introduction to “ Epidemics Resulting 
from Wars.” 1 
An examination of the facts presented in the monograph “indicates 
that until comparatively recent times the most serious human cost of 
war has been not losses in the field, nor even the losses from disease in 
the armies, but the losses from epidemics disseminated among the 
civil populations. It was the war epidemics and their sequelae, rather 
than direct military losses, that accounted for the deep prostration of 
Germany after the Thirty Years’ War. Such epidemics were also the 
gravest consequence of the Napoleonic Wars. . . . One can point 
to the fact that in the present great war, the only serious epidemic that 
has been reported is the typhus fever epidemic in Serbia. When the 
medical history of the war comes to be written, however, it will be 
found that the aggregate losses from sporadic outbreaks of war epi¬ 
demics have been very considerable. A war sufficiently protracted to 
lead to universal impoverishment and a breakdown of medical organ¬ 
ization would be attended, as in earlier times, by the whole series of 
devastating war epidemics. And even in the case of less exhausting 
wars, the chances of widespread epidemics are far from negligible.” 
1 Epidemics Resulting from Wars, by Dr. Friedrich Prinzing, published by the 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History, 
John Bates Clark, Director, p. VIII-IX, 1916. 
