568 
Combating Lousiness 
“It only remains to mention that when water is scarce it may be 
re-used after precipitation by alum and sterilization of the syphoned-off 
clear layer by addition of sufficient bleaching powder to give a chlorine 
reaction (with test-box supplied) after 30 minutes.” 
The Louse Problem under adverse conditions. 
The various conditions under which soldiers may be placed and the 
increasing difficulties that arise in lousing men as the opportunities for 
maintaining personal cleanliness decrease have already been referred to 
(p. 559). As an example of how a single adverse factor may operate in 
vitiating otherwise well intended preventive measures I would note 
an instance where the absence only of laundry facilities among troops 
encamped in England led to their remaining verminous under otherwise 
favourable conditions. I quote the instance on the authority of the 
medical officer who was in charge of the men concerned: 
Although the men were periodically disinfested and bathed, it was 
found that they continually became reinfested, the cause being finally 
traced to their underclothes. There was no definite organization to deal 
with the washing of undergarments; they were distributed to private 
persons, soldiers’ relatives and others, to be dealt with. Consequently 
some men’s clothing was frequently changed whilst that of others was 
changed at longer intervals depending upon when the men received their 
effects returned from the laundry. The result was that there were always 
some unclean men among the clean, the unclean reinfesting the clean. It 
was not until a laundry was established at or near the camp, so that all 
the men were not only loused but received clean underclothes simul¬ 
taneously, that the men, as a whole, could be kept free from vermin. 
This instance affords an excellent object lesson as to the futility of in¬ 
complete preventive measures, it being essential not to allow a single man 
to remain unclean when living in close association with the clean, for the 
unclean will invariably reinfest the clean. 
Another medical officer informed me of his experiences in France 
where he failed in spite of every effort to keep his men free from pedicu¬ 
losis and scabies until, after innumerable difficulties, he was able to 
bring it about that unclean men posted to his unit from other places 
were inspected and treated before they were allowed to mix with his men. 
By forcing through this common sense measure he reduced the incidence 
of these complaints among the men by 80 %. 
Where men cannot be supplied with an adequate change of clothing, 
