WAR AND HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2800, 19 June 1916, Page 7

WAR AND HEALTH

■- FAILURE OF YOUNGER SOLDIERS. Experiences acquired by Dr. J. W. Spi'ingthorpe; during his twehty. months' service at the. front are dealt with -fn a paper , of striking interest, published in the April'issue of the "Medical Journal' of Australia." ■ "When ,we left Australia;" writes -Dr.-Sprinsthorpe, "I ven-tured-the'statement that there would be as much work for the physician as the surgeon. . Statistics show; there has been ft-- good deal, more;' .-;• It is impossible to give anything like a presentation of all that, twelve months' service means, together with criticism, which at the present time would do no good, in a brief : hulf : houiy . Prevision is better than, subsequent criticism.■

"Two fully-equipped- bass '.'hospitals went .to Egypt.-; .We in No. ~,2 had to deal .with our, troops -at Menii. They, were 20,000 picked men, and I never saw .ot much serious'.disease .as;.in .the time I ',waS;there:: ! .:Mt required the combination. of ; many reasons;beside the large number collected:, together and 1 tho; in-' i.fluenzaiaadmeasles' !w3iich. were constant-' •iy. being; brought there. -Tho main : ill-, iiesses. there:wor'e respiratory trouble and pneumonia.: In iny.2B year.-3' experience at; the Melbourne Hospital I.havo never seen so many or such. Liad cases of-pneu-monia: . .hospital at Mona was like' a- graveyard lthere : the corpses .rose : up', and- barked: at', youi, ; In;over 200 cases of 'pneumonia. we-never Jiad.one in nn.offi-., cor.Tho boll":tont , ia a magnificent thing for healthy people; but'when, you havo thirteen men sleeping in such - a tent .with the flaps. downwind all broathing_ a , contaminated atmosphere, it- is 1 wonder. ■: if infectious diseases should 1 ' spread.; Then. again; there' wiis the_ übiquitous; dust, : and almost every patient had r usually severe , : throat. ; trouble.-.- : - It-was an interesting clinical point.todecido what, was influenza, what .tOnsilitis, and what some unknown 'Nile fever' or 'Pyramid cough/ , Out of 20,000 presumably healthy: troops we' had 83U0 patients "in two and a half month's. It was our duty to look for causes and to. stop them; but lliey left before we could uo so. As rogards tho I'noumoiiia, tho death-rate, though smtST, Js out ox all proportion to the severity of' the attacks. .Puir death-rate'was-8 per cent; . . . : "The younger men at the front were a failure., I satisfied myself that'men of' 19- and 20 cannot stand physical or menSal, strain such. as. they are called .upon to stand. , I saw boys not much over 17, afcl'it'is doubtful if' 1 they will ever, be the same again owing to -shock and strain. For two months I had to look after ..chronio rheumatics at Ghezireh, and L made a study of them, and found that pTactically all had an antecedent attack. ' If a man has had a definite attack of oven muscular rheumatism he cannot go over any length of time in the trenches; he will only be a drag on the-ofchars.lt was astonishing how few tubercular. cases occurred, with -us at any rate; also the small number of cases of ..alcoholism and renal -disease."