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

tinct problems were recognized, pre-
vention and cure. But the first of these
was considered as constituting the
main issue and was accordingly treat
ed: the second was conceded only sec
ondary Importance. The first was rec
ognized as lying peculiarly within the
province of the bacteriologist and the
sanitary engineer, the second more
properly in that of the physician.
In the matter of cure the arrange
ments made were the obvious ones.
AS need and the circumstances die
tated fourteen main contagious hos
pitfalls were one after another estab
lished at convenient points along the
front and in the interior. They were
given the most modern equipments
available, provided with laboratories
and disinfecting installments furnished
teriologists, chemists and nurses. and
left to await developments
They were intended to serve not only
as hospitals. pure and simple, but also
as isolation centers for suspected bear
ers of disease contamination and as
emergency research laboratories in
case of pressing need They were thus
destined to fulfill two functions at once.
On the score of prevention the health
authorities went to work vigorously,
but little Of permanent nature could be
accomplished until, following the de-
feat of the Germans at the battle OF
the Marine, the front had solidihed and
the two armies had settled down to the
immobile, logged trench fighting that
has characterized the war in the west
ern theater of operations. With trench
warfare finally esta blished, however.
the plans of the health authorities
speedily took shape.
Starting at the very front, in the
first line trenches, and following back
all the way to Paris the hygienic or
ganiZatton of the French army as
worked out and established according
to the plans Of the army health serv-
Ice Is carried out.
To each company, composed of about
200 men, in the first and second line
trenches an army surgeon is attached.
His principal function there is to care
for the wounded, but ne is also equip
ped with the large fund of knowledge
and the small satchel of first aid APP
pliances that fit him for outpost duty
against the threatening hosts of dis
ease. Backing him up Is a regimental
chief physician, who from his station
at the regimental stan headquarters-
some three to nve miles behind the
battle front-oversees and directs his
work and that Of the other company
surgeons Of the regiment.
The chief physician is surrounded by
a staff of medical. chemical and bacte-
biological experts He has at his dis
posal within calling distance COM
plete portable field laboratory-one Of
the little marvels Of modern scientific
warfare-and he Is fully equipped with
every manner of scientific weapon nee
essary to mete out a summary fate to
disease Back of the regimental chief
physician is a central supply station
each army in the field having one or
more Of these-where on few hours
notice can be obtained all the drugs.
serums. chemicals and apparatus suf-
fcient to. cope with any emergency.
Lastly, behind the chief physicians and
the supply stations stands the hub of
the whole sanitary organization. the
famous Pasteur Institute.
At the Pasteur Institute is situated
the chief army laboratory and supply
station. Here have been devised all
the principal schemes of sanitation and
hygiene that have saved France from
the dreaded epidemics that have swept
ed and here are assembled those mar
wells of science and eff1ciency-the port
able army field laboratories. Here are
compounded and here distributed, with
one or two exceptions. the hundreds of
sorts of chemicals. serums and germ
cultures that go to the front by every
supply train that leaves Paris. Here is
stored and from here emanates the vast
accumulation Of scientific knowledge
ard PRACTICAL sagacity that actuate the
health organization of the entire
French army.
Sanitation constitutes one of the chief
cares of the French army health serv-
ice. for there is no surer way to block
disease in an army than to keep that
army clean.
Frances fighters in the trenches ac-
cordingly get a bath every week. Each
regimental cantonment behind the bat
tie lines has its rude system of shower
baths. Here the men. hooking back by
relays from long vigils behind the
eight-foot earthen parapets. crowd to
their weekly ablutions and wash away