oculated against two of
the most dreaded diseases, smallpox and typhoid fever, and that every
reinforcement subsequently sent out had been carefully freed from
suspicious cases of disease, it can be readily understood that the
British Army began under auspicious circumstances, and that thereafter
its freedom from contagious disease depended to a great extent on the
preventive measures adopted.

It is impossible, however, to prevent our soldiers billeted in France
from occasionally contracting communicable diseases from the French
civilian population, and it is obvious that as there were from 3 to 5
per cent. of the soldiers uninoculated against typhoid fever, we would
get some cases of typhoid fever.

Besides this, unless further precautions were taken, the army would be
susceptible to disease such as cholera, dysentery and the like should
there be cases of these in the war zone.

We therefore arrive at the conclusion that, as there might be some
"carriers" and undiagnosed cases of disease among soldiers and
civilians excreting disease germs, additional means must be adopted to
destroy such germs before they could reach other soldiers. This is the
place where sanitation and hygiene steps in, and it is in these
matters that the army of Great Britain is unexcelled by any army in
the field to-day.

Since the group of intestinal diseases can originate only from the
excretions of people who are giving off the specific germs, it would
be logical to endeavour to destroy such excreta or render it incapable
of contaminating water or food. This is done. All excreta behind the
front line and reserve trenches is destroyed in numerous incinerators,
which are kept burning night and day. The British Army is the only
army which has succeeded in doing this. All excreta which cannot be
burned is buried so that it cannot be reached by flies.

As it may happen through accident or carelessness that water supplies
have been contaminated, it is the rule to sterilize all water used for
drinking purposes, either by boiling, by the use of bisulphate of
soda, or by chlorine. The chlorine method is the one in general use in
the British Army, as it is in all of the other allied armies.

The possibility of using chlorine in the field was brought to the
attention of the British Army authorities by the publication of a
method evolved by the writer in 1909. According to this method a stock
solution of hypochlorite of lime was added to the water,