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Show Spanish Influenza Baffles Doctors of United States WASHINGTON, Oct, 2 While reports re-ports today to the office of the surgeon general of the army showed decreases in the number of new cases of Spanish influenza at army camps information coming to the public health service was that the disease was rapidly spreading among the civilian population popula-tion over the country. The malady has appeared now in forty-three states and the District of Columbia and besides New England it is epidemic in Tidewater Virginia, South Carolina ancl other places. It was reported particularly prevalent along the Atlantic seaboard and tho gulf coast. Vigorous steps to combat the disease have been taken by the public health service. The number of new cases in army camps during the twenty -four hours ending at. noqn. today was slightly more than .13.000, a decrease of 1,000 from the total reported the day before. be-fore. Pneumonia in the camps also showed a decrease with 876 new cases and 271 deaths. 100,000 Cases in Camjps Influenza cases at all camps now number more than 1000,000 with 7,G-i5 cases of pneumonia reported since the epidemic began and 2,148 deaths. Sixteen Six-teen camps today reported new cases ol lnnuenza, witn tne largest numoer at Camp Meade, Md., 1,590. Camp Custer, Mich., reported 1,040 now cases cas-es and Camps Pike, Ark., and Taylor, Ky., more than 1,000 each. Camps Lee, Va., and Grant, 111., had more than 500 new cases. Conditions at Canip-Devens, Mass., continue to show improvement, only ninety -two new cases being reported there today. The crest of the epidemic epidem-ic also appears to have been passed at Camp Dix, N. J., which showed only 311 new cases against 543 yesterday. Theje were fifty deaths at Dix and twenty-nine at Devens. Influenza at Shipyards Influenza has spread to shipyards in New England and north Atlantic states to such an extent that Director General Schwab of the Emergency Fleet corporation today described the situation as "serious." In the yards at Fore Biver, Mass., he said .there were about 3,000 cases, or ten per cent of the workers. At the Hog Island yards approximately eight per cent of "the 30,000 men have been unable to report far work this week on account of the disease. Like conditions exist in other yards in the two districts, Mr. Schwab said, but the disease has not spread to any great extent to ship- '",ni -I.. n IH yards in south Atlantic, Gulf and Great " IH Lakes and Pacific coast districts. j ST. LOUIS, Oct, 2 Declaring that j Spanish influenza is baffling the med-J . ical profession. Dr. W. A. Evans, pres-t ident of the American Public Health 'H association in an address tonight be- I fore the Mississippi valldy tuberculosis J convention here, said the only way to' I t H decrease mortalities caused by the dis- !, H case was to enforce strict quarantine as soon as symptoms of it are discov-i , "Our hands have been tied so far," , Dr. Evans said, "because we know of it no euro for it. We have not,- as yet, j positively ascertained its cause." ,i |