144 TYPHOID FEVER 



During the South African War many observers made similar 

 reports. 



Tooth and Calverley (iQOi, p. y^) remarked that "in a 

 tent full of men, all apparently equally ill, one may almost pick 

 out the enteric cases by the masses of flies they attract. This 

 was very noticeable at Modder River, for at that time there 

 were in the tents men with severe sunstroke who resembled in 

 some ways enteric patients, and it was remarkable to see how 

 the flies passed over them to hover round and settle on the 

 enterics. The moment an enteric patient put out his tongue 

 one or more flies would settle on it... .It was impossible not to 

 regard them as most important factors in the dissemination of 

 enteric fever. Our opinion is further strengthened by the fact 

 that enteric fever in South Africa practically ceases every year 

 with the cold weather, and this was the case at Bloemfontein..., 

 It seemed to us that the cold weather reduced the number of 

 the enteric cases by killing these pests." 



Both Smith (1903) and Austen (1904, p. 656) make very 

 similar remarks on the conditions of the latrine trenches during 

 this campaign. The former states that a neglected trench 

 " becomes an open privy with an infected surface soil around it ; 

 the flies browse on it in the day time, and occupy the men's tents 

 at night. On visiting a deserted camp during the recent 

 campaign it was common to find half-a-dozen or so open latrines 

 containing a fetid mass of excreta and maggots. This because 

 the responsible persons so often failed to comply with the 

 regulations for encampments by filling in latrines on the 

 departure of the troops." The latter vividly describes visiting 

 a latrine in a certain standing camp. " On visiting this latrine 

 after it had been left undisturbed for a short time, a buzzing 

 swarm of flies would suddenly arise from it with a noise faintly 

 suggestive of the bursting of a percussion shrapnel shell. The 

 latrine was certainly not more than one hundred yards from the 

 nearest tents, if so much, and at meal times men's mess tins, etc., 

 were always invaded by flies. A tin of jam incautiously left 

 open for a few minutes became a seething mass of flies (chiefly 

 Pycnosoma cJiloropyga Wied.), completely covering the contents." 



Enough has been said in regard to this question from the 



