SERIOUSNESS OF INSECT-BORNE DISEASES TO ARMIES 49 



trenches. The lice spread from man to man, and they are noted for 

 leaving a man with feverish conditions for a normal man. 



Another disease which has been especially bothersome in the trenches 

 is scabies. Both horses and men are seriously afflicted with this mite 

 disease, and special veterinary hospitals were constructed in France solely 

 for handling horse scabies. 



In malarious countries where mosquitoes are breeding in great num- 

 bers, malaria is a very serious camp and army problem. Campaigns in 

 tropical countries are endangered often by yellow fever, dengue and 

 filariasis, which are also mosquito-borne diseases. 



The troops engaged in Asia and some parts of the Mediterranean lit- 

 toral had to contend with the possibilities of plague outbreaks. Troops 

 engaged in the African campaigns had to deal with trypanosome and 

 spirochete diseases. Along the Mediterranean littoral pappataci fever 

 is to be seriously considered. For example, a detachment of the British 

 Army in Egypt was suddenly attacked by an outbreak of this disease. 



We are all familiar with the disaster of our Spanish-American War 

 in which so many thousands were carried away by typhoid fever, dysen- 

 tery and diarrhea, all fly-borne diseases. In the present war, to these 

 must be added Asiatic cholera, also borne by the fly. 



The great quantity of carcasses on the battlefield gives rise to myriads 

 of flesh and carrion flies and as a consequence of the habit of these 

 flies of attacking wounds of living people, there were many cases of 

 human as well as animal anthrax in the European War. 



These are only the more important army diseases carried by insects. 

 One of the greatest dangers to troops in active service lies in their 

 moving into countries with obscure or little studied diseases, or diseases 

 against which the men have had no chance to develop immunity. 



