THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



509 



and plenty of hot water. A non-com is 

 at hand to see to it that the occasional 

 man who objects to cleanliness neverthe- 

 less follows the example of the others. 



Then they move into the third room, 

 dry themselves and put on clean clothes. 

 These may not fit, but they are clean. 

 The shirts, socks, and undergarments 

 have been subjected to 215 degrees of 

 heat in live steam for three-quarters of 

 an hour, or sometimes are boiled for five 

 minutes. The outer garments are thor- 

 oughly brushed and then ironed with a 

 very hot iron down every seam and in 

 every possible hiding place for the 

 "cootie," or the eggs. 



LOUSE HABITS DURING THE WAR 



When it is not possible to arrange per- 

 manent cleaning -up establishments of 

 this sort, the men are made to bathe as 

 best they can, and their inner garments 

 are steamed in huge horse or motor 

 drawn "delousers," which hang about the 

 rear of every army nowadays. Absolute 

 cleanliness is not secured, but the evil is 

 greatly reduced. 



"The plague may at least be reduced 

 to a minimum," remarks an English au- 

 thority. "It is not so much a matter of 

 pure science as of common-sense man- 

 agement." 



Some interesting facts have been re- 

 vealed by the scientists who have made 

 an examination of louse habits during the 

 war. One is that dugouts and buildings 

 are never infested. The cold straw and 

 the damp walls do not present any at- 

 tractions to the bug. He does not even 

 stay upon blankets any longer than is 

 necessary. His home is in clothing that 

 is being worn and from which he ven- 

 tures to feed. 



In an official document it is stated that 

 in the British army 95 per cent of men 

 who have seen six months' service are 

 lousy; that the average number of lice 

 per man is 20, and that 50 men to a bat- 

 talion of 1,000 are dangerous carriers, 

 each bearing from 100 to 300 lice. 



A HIGH-RECORD SHIRT 



One shirt was found to contain 10,428 

 lice, and more than 10,000 eggs were 

 found under the microscope. This prob- 

 ably establishes the world's highest rec- 

 ord, although nurses who served through 



the typhus epidemic in Serbia in 1915 

 told me that they had seen gray patches 

 the size of one's two hands upon the 

 bodies of men brought into the hospital. 

 The pests were so thick in these patches 

 that from a little distance they presented 

 the appearance of a felted cloth. 



The beast seems to lack intelligence, 

 however, for in all the experiments no 

 deliberate effort on his part to reach the 

 human body has been observed. He is a 

 creature of opportunity and environment. 



Eggs have been hatched after a dor- 

 mancy away from the human body of 

 forty days, and single insects have lived 

 and flourished on good feeding grounds 

 for thirty days ; but the longest period in 

 which any survived separation from its 

 human host was nine days. 



NO ARMY IS CLEANER THAN AMERICANS 



Every effort is being made to keep the 

 men of the American army free from 

 "cooties," for the American surgeons 

 and officers fully realize the danger that 

 may be carried by the pests. During the 

 early months of our army in France the 

 French baths and the English delousing 

 machines were used, but now we are get- 

 ting baths and machines of our own. 



Clean underwear is furnished the men 

 at every opportunity, and they are given 

 every possible insecticidal device, from 

 the "cootie bags" of the French to the 

 "navvy's butter" of the British. It is not 

 too much to say that no army is cleaner 

 than the American. 



The fact that most impresses the ob- 

 server, however, is the cheerful courage 

 with which the American soldier is bear- 

 ing this, as he is bearing every other dan- 

 ger and discomfort of the war. By pref- 

 erence he disguises his repugnance with 

 a rough form of humor. 



One man told me, as he left the 

 trenches after a two weeks' stay, that he 

 had "little cooties" feeding on the "big 

 cooties" now, and another said he didn't 

 mind the hikes, because "all I had to do 

 was to sort of shoo my clothing along." 

 They never whine. They say they have 

 "cootied" or they have not and do not 

 add a comment. 



Perhaps that is not the courage that 

 seeks a fleeting glory in the cannon's 

 mouth, but it seems to me it is a fine 

 courage just the same. 



