Resolute doctor protected St. Louis Max Starkloff's insistence on isolation saved many from Spanish flu. SWINE FLU.(News)

Byline: TIM O'NEIL toneil@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8132

ST. LOUIS - In October 1918, the meat grinder known as World War I was lurching to its exhausted conclusion in the Argonne forest. Another, even bigger, killer was just getting started.

The 1918-19 influenza pandemic, known to history as the Spanish flu, was racing across the world. Estimates of the flu's worldwide toll range from 25 million to 50 million deaths, including 675,000 in the U.S. The numbers overwhelmed the butchery of four years of ghastly trench war, which managed to kill about 8.6 million, including 116,000 American doughboys.

In St. Louis, a strong-willed doctor moved …