346 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



tine, spreading out of the personnel, closing places of assembly, 

 delay the progress of the disease but fail wholly to prevent it. 



The death rate from disease was lower in the A. E. F. than 

 in the camps in this country. The more susceptible had been 

 eliminated by sickness or death before the Divisions pro- 

 ceeded to France. However, the rates for individual diseases 

 showed some interesting variations both in morbidity and mor- 

 tality. There was, quite naturally, but little measles in the 

 A. E. F., for the simple reason that the susceptible material 

 had been practically consumed in the camps in this country. 

 On the other hand the morbidity from scarlet fever and menin- 

 gitis was higher in the A. E. F. There were probably several 

 factors involved in this. One of these was the greater diffi- 

 culty in the early recognition of cases and in their speedy and 

 effective isolation. We have no data concerning the preva- 

 lence of these diseases among the civilian and military popu- 

 lation of France in areas occupied by our troops and conse- 

 quently we cannot evaluate this factor. Typhoid fever and 

 dysentery were constantly more prevalent in the A. E. F. 

 The purification of drinking water in an active battle area 

 must be unsatisfactory. Intense thirst drives men to drink 

 water from any and every available source. Moreover, ex- 

 perience demonstrates that the protection against typhoid fever 

 furnished by vaccination is not absolute and may be overcome 

 by massive doses of the infection. While the morbidity rate 

 from this disease in the A. E. F. at no time approached that 

 of former wars it was quite constantly higher than in our home 

 camps. No bacterial vaccination, not even one attack of the 

 disease, gives unlimited protection. Typhoid, when it de- 

 velopes among the vaccinated, is in no constant and essential 

 way different from the same disease among the unvaccinated. 

 Complications and death rate are essentially the same in the 

 two conditions. 



Venereal diseases increased in every camp with each incre- 

 ment from the civilian population. Indeed, one can look at 

 the venereal chart of any division and tell from its peaks just 



