FRESH AIR AND EFFICIENCY 275 



of sickness and loss of efficiency in the navy (one- 

 sixth of the total sickness, and one-fifth of the total 

 deaths were ascribed to these diseases); whereas the 

 average for the five years ending 1912 is between one- 

 seventh and one-eighth of the total sickness, and but 

 one-twentieth of the total deaths (after making full 

 allowance for the men who are " invalided out" of 

 the navy on account of these diseases). 



As to our prisons, Baly, writing in 1868, recorded 

 that consumption was three times more prevalent in 

 Millbank Prison than in the Metropolis; and it is 

 certain that 'more cubic space and better ventilation 

 were the main factors in bringing about the subsequent 

 great reduction in this disease among prisoners. 



And what is there to be said of our army that is 

 shaping so magnificently in the great war? It has 

 been a wonderfully healthy army, and no effort has 

 been spared to make and keep it so. I have, however, 

 been greatly impressed, as the result of my inspections 

 and the facts disclosed to me by medical officers, with 

 the evidence this army has afforded of the value of 

 ventilation in reducing "invaliding"; and I have 

 reached the conviction that the sufficient ventilation 

 of barracks, huts, and billets is a prime requirement 

 of army sanitation in the interest of army efficiency. 

 Realizing this, the Army Council, quite early in the 

 war, issued an order that at least two diagonally op- 

 posite windows in every hut and barrack room were 

 to be kept constantly open to their fullest extent (day 

 and night); and the importance of sufficient ventilation 

 was (later) again impressed upon the commands. In 

 certain night inspections in winter months I found that 

 the prevalence of conditions of catarrh amongst the 

 occupants of huts bore a close relationship to the state 

 of the atmosphere of the huts which were inspected. 

 Units were found to vary considerably in the extent to 



