The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-15

way in which typhus has been con- quered as one of the most interesting sections Of the medical side of the war. He says: Although it has all ways been endemic in Russia and yearly claims not a few victims, no one had ever had a clear idea as to now 1t was transmitted and how it could be combatted. The French bac- ter1olog1st Nicolle suggested that it might be transmitted by the louse, but no serious attempts were made to con- rlrm the soundness of this hypothesis or apply Its consequences in practice.
 When the disease invaded Germany, important research on it was under taken at once- The conclusion was soon drawn that body lice were prob ably responsible for the transmission
 and organized efforts to 'un1ouse' the men were at once undertaken. From the moment when it became possible to obtain the mastery over lice, the disease was rooted out of Germany; single cases may be imported as the incubation period is fourteen days
 but when no lice are to be found the disease cannot spread. A typhus pa tient can sleep with other patients without injecting them. Every sol- dier is 'unloused' before he is allow ed to leave the front, and in every railroad station in Germany there stands reservist soldier and he de- mands from every military person. generals as we'll as privates- comes from the front, to produce his Entlausungsschein, his card certify ing that he has been 'unloused,' before he is allowed to leave the depot. In the prisoners camp the unlousing was done with very simple means. The lice are killed with steam and dry heat applied in a wooden building lin- ed throughout with roofing paste board. The steam is developed in locomotive which is run close to the
 barracks. The men enter room and deposit their watch and other valu- ables in locker in the outer wall. The clothing is marked with a num-
 Der and hung up on hook and car ried into the sterilizing> room where it hangs in rows as in a wardrobe A tube brings the steam from the loco- motive. It enters with a force of twelve atmospheres, a wooden screen
 preventing the steam from blowing the clothing off the hooks. Maxima1 Thermometers are suspended among the clothes and a thermometer and manometer are arranged so they can be read from outside. In the course of half an hour the temperature in thero is brought to no C., which is more than enough to kill the lice. Leather goods are sterilized with dry heat in another room heated by the steam sent through pipes. Tn the meanwhile the men have passed into room where the hair and beard arc cut, the hair on the bodies being also shaved. They pass then into the room where there are large tubs and touches and the men are soaped and scrubbed. They then pass into an- other room, located on the other side of the sterilizing room and their cloth ing is handed to them. we'll dried af- ter the sterilization. They can then leave the establishment, getting their valuables by unlocking the lockers from outside the building. A thou sand men can thus be 'unloused' in an hours time. That not merely lice but all bacteria are killed at the same time is self-evident. The barracks themselves can also be disinfected by the steam from the locomotive at any time; formaldehyd disinfection does not kill lice.
 Medical Research
 1.-The mode of transmission and prophylaxis of typhus are by no means the only subject for scientific research during the war. We had op- portunity to see a collection of path ologicanatomic preparations which have been collected mostly by Asch- off, and which are exhibited in the Kaiser-Wilhelms Akademie at Ber- lin. The future will not lack material to study the action of projectiles from modern weapons; there are also on