The Washington times., 1915-06-12
ROYAL MEDICAL CORPS
FIGHTS EVERY GERM
By WILLIAM G.. SHEPHERD.
Copyright. 1875 by the United Press. Cop,
right in Great Brittany

right in Great Brittany
HEADQUARTERS OF THE BRITISH
ARMY, Northern France. April % iBy
Mail to New rk).-'How shall we dis
tribute them to the soldiers. sir ?" asked
an officer who came up during my con-
versation with the director Of medical
services.
ut doesn't make so much difference
what channel we turn them into. just so
the soldiers get them.' answered the
director.
We've just found a simple apparatus
for our soldiers to wear that will save
them from the gases" he said. THE
point is to get them distributed as quich-
ly as possible"
The health of Gen. French's great army
in France and Flanders is in the hands
Of the head of the royal army medical
corps. and It Is as much in the duty Of
the r. A. NJ. c. to save soldiers from
German pneumonia" as the gas poison
is now being called by the British
soldiers, as 1t Is to save from typhoid
fever. Within a few hours Of the time
that the first word came that the Ger
mans were using gas. the r. A. NJ. c.
had taken up the task of meeting the
new situation. Its new doctors wore
out on the firing line. studying the
symptoms of the poisoning; It's motor
laboratories were experimenting with
gases and antidotes.
The r. A. NJ. C.'s duty Is not only to
keep the soldiers healthy. but to take
care of them when they are sick or
wounded.
Fight Every Germ.
Every town in the British zone in
France was made scientifically sani-
tary. In many towns. street cleaning
forces made thoroughfares and yards,
houses and even ancient castles and
chateaux as germless as possible. The
r. A. NJ. C. forces pursued germs as
II they were the Kaiser's army. Sol
diers had to step about at r. A. NJ. c.
orders: colonels and generals and all
the other high folks had to follow r.
A. M. c. orders. The medical man was
supreme In his own fighting zone.
Health regulations and sanitary orders
were set out in each town. All the
refuse must be burned: even tin cans in
which there had been food must be put
into the Are. The germ chase was con-
Quoted Gless of expense regard
less of g. incidentally, the latest
order to ,..e soldiers is kill every fly in
sight"
The r. A. NJ. C. men go into the
trenches. too. In their hunt. The trench
soldiers are instructed how to live sani-
tarily: how to build toilet rooms as
sanitary as those in a London dwelling: ::
how to burn the remnants of their hur-
ried trench meals.
l found the Canadian branch of the
r. A. NJ. c. established In an old French
prison. They had fought the germs out
of 1t: they had whitewashed the ancient
walls. the great yard-a mudhole in
winter-was as spick and span as a gar
den 1t looked like Spotless Town.
Fight Strained Nerves.
All through the British zone l found
lighthouses. Sometimes they were fac
tory buildings or linen mills. My chief
impression, during my trips behind the
British line. is of groups of soldiers,
with towels around their necks, swing
ing along a road either toward or from
, some bathhouse. Clean socks, clean un-
derwear and insectless uniforms are
given to them when they tumble out
Of the watts or tubs.
The r. A. NJ. c. fights tiredness. too,
and strained nerves. l don't know how
many "convalescent hospitals" there
are in the British line. I've been In not
a few of them. They are always big.
CHEEKY houses, which In reality are
rest homes" There are games and
music and papers and books and maga- =
zines In these "convalescent hospitals" /"
All s.Gns of war are absent.
In the United states, during the Span
tsh- american war, we saw how our
volunteers died like flies. and never got
within a thousand rliles OF the enemy,
because We did not have anything like
the services which the r. A. NJ. G. Is
rendering In The British army today.