Lord of Flies. They give rise to a malady known as
sand-fly fever, which is like influenza and drains the body of all
vitality for many days. In addition to this, either the food, the water,
the dust, or the day flies were spreading about a form of diarrhoea
which rapidly turned into dysentery. The day flies were a swiftly
growing army. Breeding grounds in the surrounding camps, in the horse
lines, the bullock lines and native villages were numerous. They were
nothing like the flies at Mudros when the whole roof of a tent at night
might be uniformly black with them, and eating was in the nature of a
free fight. A couple of hundred or so to each tent was perhaps the
average, but they made rest a matter of difficulty. The Red Cross
fortunately supplied us with instruments of fly destruction, and later
on fly experts were sent out.

[Illustration: THE HOSPITAL WASHING.]

The result of all this was that the curve of sickness began to mount
steeply, and it became necessary to make some provision for the victims.
Since our position was central as regards reinforcement camps, we were
delegated to deal with local sick, and after that arrangement very few
of the cases sent down from the front came our way. For the first few
days the number of incoming sick could be dealt with adequately. But as
time went on, and the mercury rose higher and higher in the lifeless
air, the number increased and became formidable. Long lines of ambulance
wagons and bullock tongas crept steadily from every quarter to the
hospital. Beds were crowded into every corner of the wards. We had no
fans. Imagine, you who live in civilisation, what an electric fan may
mean. You can see it spinning in the corner of your club or restaurant
and think nothing of it. But in that place it meant the difference
between life and death. Picture yourself tossing in a high fever in the
centre of a stifling ward, with the temperature above 90 degrees all
through the night, and not a breath of wind stirring. Then think what it
would mean to find yourself placed suddenly under the whirling vanes of
a big fan, lying with your mouth wide open, taking great gulps of the
cool rushing air. When we moved up river, three months later, it was
rumoured the fans were on their way from India.

The maladies that were commonest were malaria, diarrhoea, dysentery,
jaundice and heat-stroke. There were some scattered cases of cholera,
and a few of typhoid. The typhoid began in earnest la