324 ASHFORD— APPLICATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO 



dose of virulent organisms, or, through carelessness, were not 

 properly inoculated. 



Influenza demanded prompt evacuation in separate ambulances, 

 segregation, and masking. 



Smallpox called for strict quarantine and vaccination. 



Trench foot: Issuance of dry socks at dinnertime, when in the 

 line, or in very muddy terrain elsewhere ; powdering of feet with 

 a combination of camphor, salicylic acid and talcum ; mutual massage 

 of feet, after removing shoes, in groups of two when in the line ; 

 precluding of foot and leg covering which constricts the circulation ; 

 drying of shoes at every favorable opportunity. 



Venereal disease: Propaganda, prophylactic stations and sur-- 

 veillance of civilians. Applicable in cantonments. 



Tetanus: Universal prevention dose of antitoxin in all wounds 

 and in trench foot. 



Boils and other infective inflammations of the deeper layers of 

 the skin: Inspection of men at baths for scabies and other sources of 

 irritation of the skin, and segregation under treatment. These skin 

 affections, plus lousiness which often caused trench fever, were 

 responsible, it is said, for a full 90 per cent, of all incapacitation 

 from disease in a British Army. 



It is extremely interesting to review the experience of the French 

 and British during the long months of war preceding our entrance 

 into these scenes, a time when experience, that bitter teacher, was 

 elaborating for us the saving knowledge that Briton and Gaul turned 

 over to us for our protection, without a thought inspired by selfish 

 pride, or the slightest attempt to cloak their own shortcomings, that 

 by these truths our men should live to fight. 



When the war broke upon Europe, France, we were told, had no 

 compulsory vaccination against typhoid. The result was that for 

 the first six months, due, in part, to a life-and-death struggle in 

 which only military resistance could be considered, typhoid ran 

 rampant. No one knows how many cases developed in the French 

 Army ; one French officer named a figure that is so high as to be 

 almost incredible. Compulsory vaccination wiped out the disease 

 from this Army in the succeeding months. In the British Army 90 

 per cent, of her men were inoculated against this disease with the 



