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

regimental physicians order daily tests
of every source of supply in the vi
cinity of their respective headquarters.
They never take 1t for granted that the
supply which proved best yesterday
will still be best today. They never
allow twenty-four hours to roll by
without sampling religiously every pos
sibility and choosing by careful COM
parison
Once the days source of supply is
thus scientifically determined, a bucket
squad is detailed to bring enough into
camp for the whole regiment. In camp
the water is thoroughly steriliZed, either
by boiling or by mixing with it a small
quantity of chlorine in the proportion
of one millogram of chlorine TO each
quart of water, this latter process be-
ing one of the most important meas
ures introduced by the Pasteur Insti-
tute.
After sterilization in camp the water
is carried two or three miles into the
trenches where it Is again sterilized
with chlorine by the company surgeons.
After this final process it is considered
fit for the men to drink; not before.
So the army health service puts up
the bars against disease by keeping the
French soldier clean. his quarters
healthy and his food wholesome. These
are precautionary measures that lie
distinctly in the field of sanitation and
hygiene Other measures, hailing from
the provinces of bacterology and med
icine, have contributed no less to the
establishment of the wonderful health
record of the French fighting forces.
First among these stands the vac
cination of the whole French army
against typhoid fever. Every soldier
not already immunized through hav-
ba inOrnlated
six cubic centimeterS of anti-typhoid
vaccine prepared according to the
method in vogue at the Pasteur lnstl-
tute, which consists in making an
emulsion of 500 900. 900 typhoid germs to
each cubic centimeter of fluid and KILL
ing these microbes at a temperature
of Sc degrees centsrade-
This form OF anti-typhoid vaccine does
not invariably immuniZe the person in
oculated 1t does. however furnish
a reasonable degree of protection BY
it's use the typhoid rate in the army has
been kept very low. much lower than
the average rate for an equal NUMBER
of men In time OF peace
Smallpox vaccination is equally in
sisted upon by the army health serV-
ice But since vaccination Is as gen.
France as baptism, the service has been
spared much trouble on this score How
ever. no man is allowed to enter the
army until he bears vaccination scar
Inc result OF TINS pieSaultoii iidS
proved it's value; not a single outbreak
of smallpox has occurred in the amy
since war began.
Another preventive measure-though
1T has nothing to do with contagious
disease-deserves to be mentioned IL
Is the care taken to prevent the de-
velopment of lockjaw from injected
wounds. The PaSteur Institute pro-
vides every army surgeon on the battle
line with a supply of antl-tetanus
serum. The surgeon is instructed TO
use this serum unsparingly.
Wherever a man is picked up suHer-
ing from a wound in which dirt. spllnt-
ers of shell. or bits of torn clothing
have collected. he is inoculated at once
against 1ockjaw. The attending sur
geon does not even wait until the SUI
ferer can be transferred to a field nos
pital. In the French army no chances
are taken with lockjaw. Consequently
lockjaw takes no liberties with the
French army.
One more point remains to be touched
upon.
No survey of the ways and means
adj cd nv re rI11ia