BACILLI OR DISEASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1371, 9 March 1915, Page 4

BACILLI OR DISEASE.

WHICH KILL THE MOST

SOLDIERS ?

Modern science has done much to banish disease amongst soldiers, aud the scourges of smallpox, malaria, and cholera, which in former campaigns have killed more men than bullets, have lost much of their menace ior fighting men. There still remain, however, diseases such as dysentery, pneumonia, aud enteric, which are likely to break out amongst bodies of troops unless careful precautions are taken by the men themselves.

Dyseulery is oue of the most terrible of camp diseases, and during the South African war it killed thousands, for during that campaign, out of our 22,000 casualties, builds accounted for only 8,000, and disease 14,000. Dysentery, which is an Inflammation of the internal organs, is generally caused through impure water. Soldiers at the front have been given directions to boil the water they drink, whenever possible, though, of course, there are obvious difficulties in the way of providing every soldier with the necessary heating apparatus. Pneumonia is a disease which seldom fails to attack an army fighting under severe weather conditions. Sleeping iu rainsodden trenches or on damp ground is all part of “Tommy’s” day’s work, and it is not surprising that this complaint should result from such exposure. As Sir William Osier, the medical expert, points out, the resisting forces of the body are lowered when cold and rain comes, and long, exhausting marches have to be carried out, and thus the weary so'dier falls an easy victim to pneumonia and kindred complaints caused by severe chills. Enteric or typhoid is one of the most fatal diseases connected with modern warfare. Over and over again it has killed thousands before they ever reached the fighting line. During the SpanishAmerican war over 20,000 officers and men in the United States army contracted typhoid, or one-fifth of the entire army engaged iu the campaign. To fight the germs of this disease, soldiers are now vaccinated against typhoid just as they are innoculated against smallpox.