The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-30
LESS TYPHOID THAN
 MEASLESAT FRONT
Grenfell Enthusiastic About British Surgeons
DISEASE CONQUERED
Army Medical Corps Takes Over the Sanitary Arrangements of All
 Villages in Zone of .. Occupation

London, April 18.-(Correspondence oi the Associated Press )-"There is less ty- phoid at the front today than there is measles,'' according to Dr. Wilfred Gren- fell head of the Labrador medical mis- sions, who has been for three months with the Harvard surgical unit, and who is now returning to his work in Labra- dor He is unboundedly enthusiastic about the work of the British medical men at the front.
 Look at typhoid he remarked. Here tofore whole armies have been decimated by it. When the English took over the trenches west of Yypres, where typhoid was endemic in the villages, the allies had already 5000 cases of this disease. inoculated and this, was supplemented by the British Tommy playing Hercules in cleaning up this new Augean stable. But now typhoid is so small factor that if single case occurs anywhere in four armies, it is known the. same night at headquarters. and next day a rigid local inquiry is held as to the cause.
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 ''The sanitary service of all the towns and villages near the line has been taken over by the army medical corps. Sewers and drains have been put in order; gar bage and filth disposed of at the least possible cost. At certain places near the line one sees a series of furnaces all made from old tins filled with clay. hav- ing air spaces between, which once light ed require next to no attention, but are eternally doing their work, like modern Valleys of Hinnom.
 Water supplies are all the time be- ing tested and retested by the ambulance laboratories. One sees everywhere the trail of their work in iabelS hanging to melancholy looking taps, such as. This water is not to be used until chlorinated,
 "Tetanus. a most terrible and fatal dan- ger of mud associated with wounds is be- ing met with inoculation soon after the event that it has become an almost neg ligible factor in war mortality.
 Trench feet at first disabled thou sands of our soldiers. Today it is no longer a problem. A batch of such cases is now sent down by the medical officer in the trench with an apology and an explanation, as if it were a msdemeanor
 UNFIT ARE ELIMINATED
 "One sees criticisms on the one hand that operations are entrusted to incom- petent hands. and on the other that ex- travagant salaries are paid for illustrious names Neither of these statements has any truth in it. Unfit surgeons are re- morselessly eliminated as soon as recog- nized, and the army has not paid more than the rank entities him to any sur geon. Yet they have permanently in France men whose skill brings them in the comfort of their homes 10 times the money for which they are serving their country.
 "To us, the teamwork of these hos pital units each with it's expert in various lines, the pathologists, the X-ray men, the diagnosticians, the therapeutics, the operating surgeons, and the commanding executive medical officers, suggest an ideal model for the future in civil life. The splendid dental and eye clinics are among the best evidences of the progress of army medical work. Hundreds of cases of minor eye troubles are corrected which would never have been discovered but for the war. In spite of the strain of war the workers have isolated new diseases. such as trench fever and trench enphritis-the first step toward their cure.
 "A casualty clearing station to the or dlnary mind suggests only shambles of shattered humanity amid which belated medical officers labor to give temporary relief until the victims can obtain treat ment at base hospital. The real cas- ualty clearing station would surprise the unenelightened visitor as much as the large butterfly emerging from a chrysalis would child. In old factories, schools. or In huts, adapted operating rooms. well lighted with electricity or acetylene af- ford all that is necessary for good aseptic surgery.