BACTERIOLOGY AND THE WAR. 15 
The detection of germ carriers is of vital importance to 
the Army in this war, particularly in the case of Dysentery, 
Enteric, and Spotted Fever. No soldier who has recovered 
from any of these diseases can go on active service until 
bacteriologists have proved by frequent examinations that 
he is no longer excreting the disease producing organisms. 
Many thousands of examinations for “ carriers” have 
been undertaken in the University, and the staff of the 
Thompson Yates, the Johnston, and the Tropical School 
laboratories have been considerably augmented, by the War 
Office, in order to cope with this work. 
The difficulty of detecting carriers is sometimes so great 
that every soldier convalescent from enteric must be examined 
three times, and from dysentery three times, before rejoining for 
active service. Three persistent paratyphoid carriers have 
been discovered in the Thompson Yates laboratories, and are 
now in the Military Typhoid Camp where they will doubtless 
remain till the end of the war. 
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN MAn AanpD MICROBES. 
I will now briefly allude to one of the most fascinating 
subjects in bacteriology, namely, some of the methods by 
which the body defends itself against the attacks of bacteria. 
The skin which covers the outside of the body and the mucous 
membrane lining the inside of the nose, throat, tonsils, lungs, 
etc., are its first line of defence. The lymphatic glands draining 
these areas form a second line. Further, the mucous membrane 
of the nose and throat is protected by a layer of sticky material 
which catches the bacteria as sticky fly-paper will catch flies. 
Suppose I prick my finger with a dirty pi, i.e., one 
coated with harmful cocci, in other words, suppose, by 
means of the pin prick, the cocci break through the skin 
or first line of defence, what happens? The first thing that 
