486 Colonel George Adami [Feb. 7, 



conquest of Palestine, depended for its success upon a knowledge of 

 the natural history of malaria. Only by the most rapid advance 

 could Allenby push his men through the malarial district of Palestine 

 and overcome the Turk before they in their turn were overcome by 

 malaria. But for this rapid action on his part this last crusade 

 would ha^e met with the fate of the earlier. 



Nor did we work out the nature of trench fever until the war 

 was almost over. The same is largely true regarding gas gangrene 

 and its arrest. That we did not overcome the bane of all armies, 

 venereal disease, was not, however, due to want of scientific know- 

 ledge, but to the hesitancy of those in authority and fear of 

 putting in motion those procedures which would have kept these 

 foul diseases under. 



After all, the fight against the infections is very like that against 

 the Hun. Our defences in one area have been so well placed and so 

 well constructed as to keep the enemy at bay with ease ; in another 

 area, as around Ypres, our protection has been incomplete and the 

 situation so unfavourable that we have only held on with enormous 

 losses ; at yet another point along the line a sudden attack for which 

 we were not prepared may have led to rapid retirement and loss of 

 ground, as on the Somme last spring. Of such a nature was 

 the recent epidemic of influenza, which happily, like the German 

 advance, w^ore itself out,. but for a time led to a terrible mortality. 

 The position regarding the venereal disease may be likened to the 

 Gallipoli campaign — terribly costly, with unnecessary failure. A 

 fuller knowledge of psychology and a fuller belief in the efficiency of 

 preventive med.icine would have converted failure into success. The 

 methods of preventing these diseases and of reducing their ravages 

 to inconsiderable proportions were there, only we were afraid to act. 

 We thought the opposition would be too great. 



What led to Success. 



Yet surveying our operations in general in our fight against 

 disease, as against the Hun, we have come out well, and looking back 

 I am inclined to think that three factors have especially contributed. 



(1) It is to the credit of the late Director-General, Sir Alfred 

 Keogh, that when he with his South African experience assumed 

 office his first act was to place sanitary science in the forefront in 

 the training of the army medical officer. He developed courses at 

 Aldershot, not only for the officers of his own Corps, but also for 

 regular officers at the Staff College, and for N.C.O.'s and men in the 

 camp. Thus when the war came upon us the commanding officers 

 of units and the sergeants and men of the little old Army had an 

 intelligent knowledge of the principles of hygiene and preventive 

 medicine ; as a body they received willingly the recommendations of 

 their medical officers, and they co-operated loyally. (2) Then, too, 



