Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05

stantly sprayed with oil and disinfect-
ants. Bodies of slain men and horses
are inferred Immediately If conditions
permit.
X
But difficulty often arises here
During the present stage of the war
most of the casualties occur in that
bullet-swept no-man's land that lies
between the trenches of the opposing
armies. 1t is self-evident, then, that
unless the battle line has shifted dur
ing the course of an attack the bodies
of the fallen cannot be recovered from
this dangerous strip Of territory ex-
cepting at the cost of more precious
lives They must be left to lie there
and decay even though they be almost
within arms reach.
Strangely enough. however. science
has discovered that decaying bodies
are never a direct source of contagious
disease Their menace lies only in this
that water drawn from their vicinity
may contain substances which will irri-
tate and weaken the digestive organs
of those who drink 1t. and that flies,
breeding rapidly as they do where dead
bodies lie may live subsequently to
pick up and spread abroad disease orig
mating elsewhere.
But as for decomposing flesh itself it
is so far from constituting direct dis
ease danger that the corpses of per-
sons who have died of cholera or small
pox have been found to be no longer
dangerous four or five days after death.
Science explains this little known fact
by pointing out that the bacillus which
causes decomposition destroys every
other microbe in a dead body within a
few days after decomposition sets in
Hence the French army has not been
greatly endangered by the presence of
its unburied dead between the fighting
lines.
Bad food supplies. II permitted. would
represent a much more serious embar-
rassment. An army nourished con-
stantly on a diet of adulterated canned
goods and too-aged meats and vege-
tables would soon have its collective
stomach very considerably deranged.
Such an army would fall very easy
prey to typhoid. cholera or dysente. v
in case of a serious outbreak of any
one of these three scourges.
But If there Is one thing that the
French army prides itself on more than
another 1t is the excellence of its fare
And for two reasons. The French gov
eminent spares no expense to give it's
service spares no pains to assure the
purity and freshness of the supply.
Here the work of the regimental chief
physicians attached to the service
shines. AS each regiment from day 20
day receives it's quota of provisions,
shipped by train and auto truck from
the interior. the chief physicians call
their chemical assistants to them and
order a thorough test of the newly ar
rived consignments The chemists
thereupon select samples Of meat, vege-
tables and canned goods and proceed to
test. Should any of the samples they
investigate fall below an esta blished
hygienic par they Immediately report
the fact to their superiors.
The result is that the bad lots of food
thus discovered are summarily thrown
away, and the head of the commissariat
department of the army is Immediately
notified that such and such consign-
ments of food were unfit for consump-
ton by the troops" Eventually the
person or persons who sold the army
those consignments will undergo q
number of very unpleasant experiences
Ii they happen to live in France.
They, and not the army. will fall a VIC
tim to the bad food.
The water drunk by the French army
is supervised and tested even more
carefully than its food. The army's