to be tested. The tremendous
number of bacteria found in some of these "spring" samples we on
several occasions reported as indicating the presence of buried animal
matter in the immediate vicinity of the springs, and resulted in
finding this to be correct. In one case in which a badly polluted
water was so reported upon, the burial place of some fifty Germans
was found only a few feet away.

One suspected epidemic of dysentery was a typically water borne
infection which did not prove to be the real thing. Half of one
company was in a front line trench and half in support. Part of the
one section took their drinking water from a shallow well near at hand
without treating it, and practically every one who drank it,
thirty-one in all, came down with typical symptoms of dysentery, while
all the others who did not drink it raw escaped. The well water was
found to be badly polluted. The sick were all quite well in four or
five days, and able to return to the front line, but it proved to be
an excellent lesson in hygiene to that Division.

A curious phenomenon in connection with the army water supply was
noted that first spring in Flanders. The flat surface of the country
in our area consisted of a very tenacious clay, and the farm wells
were usually sunk ten to twelve feet in that clay. In the months of
March and April, though the fields were water logged and the ditches
brimming over, the wells which were being used by the troops were
going dry. In other words the soil was almost impervious so that once
a well had been emptied it would not fill up again for days.

For this and several other reasons we reported the necessity for large
mobile water purification units, which could take the water from
larger bodies of water such as ponds, creeks, canals or rivers, purify
it, and deliver it filtered and sterilized into the water carts or
tanks. Such a system was subsequently adopted by the war office and is
now in general use in the British Armies.

One hot morning in mid June we received a telegram from the Surgeon
General to investigate a water supply complained of in the Festubert
region. A premonition seized me that I was going to be killed, for the
battery to be visited was in a very "unhealthy" spot. So I made a new
will, and wrote a letter of farewell, to be posted in case of
accident.

The battery was found nestling in the midst of an orchard, but the
M.O. who knew all about the water supply, was not to be found.