TRENCH FEVER 121 



of but in vain, and without them men become 

 verminous no matter who they are if one arrives 

 amongst them with a louse upon him. Another 

 factor also played a part in causing the trenches 

 to spread the malady, for in them men live and 

 sleep in the closest contact, and so it is that lice 

 find no difficulty in passing from man to man, 

 from the diseased to the future victim. As 

 time went on the number of men carrying the 

 germ of trench fever in their blood gradually 

 increased, men infected passed to other areas 

 than the foremost lines, and lice in many quarters 

 had an opportunity of feeding on them, such 

 lice in their turn becoming disseminators of the 

 fever. In this way the disease spread, and 

 attacked men in the field hospitals, in billets, 

 rest camps, and any place where the two essentials 

 for its production were present men with trench 

 fever in their blood and lice to pass it on to others. 

 Besides being erroneous the giving of this name 

 ' trench fever " may prove a serious mistake. 

 To those unfamiliar with the disease the man 

 who has never been in the trenches cannot be 

 suffering from trench fever, and for this reason 

 the spread of the disease to new districts, and 

 among those unfamiliar with its symptoms, will 

 go unrecognised. Should trench fever spread 

 amongst us at home, think how unfortunate such 

 a name might prove to be. 



That trench fever might come amongst us 

 is no idle supposition. Many lice are always 



