118 LICE AND THEIR MENACE TO MAN 



stagnating on congested tracks, while in box 

 cars the people were packed so closely together 

 that those who died could not fall, and were 

 removed only when at last the cars were emptied ; 

 of morning searches of the railroad stations and 

 freight yards for the bodies of persons who had 

 crept into corners and expired ; of daily sights 

 of people dying in the streets of Jassy, some 

 from disease and some merely from starvation 

 and exposure. Every hospital and improvised 

 barrack was swarming with typhus cases, and as 

 at first the rush of trouble was too great to permit 

 of prophylaxis, infection spread throughout the 

 buildings, taking not only wounded soldiers, but 

 also doctors, nurses, orderlies, and all divisions 

 of the hospital personnel. In all places the same 

 story of horrors is told. In all, the shortage of 

 beds was so great that usually two beds were 

 placed together to hold three patients across 

 them, while often two more patients were laid 

 on the floor underneath. So short-handed were 

 the hospitals that sometimes it was hardly possible 

 to do more than to pick out the dead to find 

 place for those who were still living. It is said 

 that in the little city of Jassy as many as 500 

 died in a day. . . Especially disastrous were the 

 first barracks erected for the retreating army. 

 To gain warmth they dug into the ground with 

 only the roof above the soil, and the men slept 

 on a layer of straw covering the floor, lying 

 close together for warmth. In these places 



