The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-29
PLAGUE OF The TRENCHES
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic J. Haslxin. Director
Washington. ID. O.
washington. June 2s.-It was the

to discover, and several thousand
Frenchmen, standing knee-deep in Ice
water that flooded the trenches, re-
Taxed their holds on their rifles for
the first time in thirty hours. Occa-
sionally, a khaki-clad form stopped
over what appeared to be an empty
place IN the trenches, and lifted an
other khaki-clad form, inert and wa
ter-soaked, onto an army ambu nee
that teetered slowly down the line
thru the snow and mud.
An officer in mud-spattered uni
form, his lace lined and grey as the
surrounding mist, pulled himself stiff
fly out of his trench and walked over
to where an army surgeon was work.
ing with a group of men lying I'M
conscious in the snow. The officer
observed that the surgeon was using,
not the usual hypodermic of NOR
prime, but strong reviving stimulanS
of hot whisky.
"Wounded?' he asked, as the sur
geon lifted one man on his arm and
thrust a canteen between his lips.
Yes" answered the surgeon.
Wounded with tuberculosis"
Wounded with tuberculosis is one
OF the bitterest phrases the war has
coined. 1t is bad enough to die on
the battlefield, but at least death
comes quickly under such circum-
stances But to be sent home to die
slowly of the white plague, often in
a poor-law inStitution-that has been
the fate of thousands of trench SOL
diers- France has discharged nearly
two hundred thousand soldiers on &C
count of tuberculosis since the begin
ming of the war, and the spread c. the
disease in the British army has reach
ed such alarming proportions that the
civilian population has organized to
combat the situation.
1t has taken some time for France
to realize her plight, but today the
French combative spirit is aroused.
An anti-tuberculosiS campaign is I'M
der way, in which it may be stated
with pride that Americans are con-
tributing the major part both in
money and service. The officer of
and it did not take him long to dis
cover that the whole French army
was rapidly being weakened by the
dread scourge. Later, when wounded
he was sent back to France, he got in
touch with his friends from home to
whom he gave a grim account of
conditions. Something must be
DONE" he concluded, land done quick
ly, or there will be no French army"
The Americans in Paris Immediate
ly organized themselves into com
mittee-that being one of the things
for which Americans are famous
and called upon the French govern
ment The French government was
sufficiently alarmed concerning the
spread of the disease, but unfortu-
nately it was already handicapped
with too many obligations to offer any
adequate remedy for the situation 1t
simply had to be left to the civil
population.
In a subsequent investigation it be-
came apparent that the civil popula-
disease anyway, and not the army.
While trench life certainly aggravates
any tendency towards tuberculosis, it
was discovered that in the majority OF
cases the disease was already there.
In other words, the terrible fact was
revealed that the whole of France was
highly tuberculous.
Before the war the death rate from
tuberculosis was nearly three per
thousand of population, in the cities
the percentage running much higher.
In Havre, for example, the death rate
from all diseases last year was over
three times that of New York City.
The death rate from tuberculosis
alone was equal to 40 per cent of the
entire death rate of New York City.
Searching for the cause of this large
mortality from tuberculosis, the inves-
tigating Americans soon found it. The
United States has suffered sufficient
ly from the scourge to make most of
it's citizens intelligent and Sympathet-
ic anti-tuberculosis campaigners.
Every American, altho he may not al
ways practice it, is a believer i the
value of fresh air. The French, altho
an extremely enlightened people in
the sciences of anaesthesia and sur
gerry, are not by any means an exam
pie to the world in itary/<matters
The fact of the matter is that the
French do not get enough fresh air
Fresh air, cleanliness and disinfec-
ton are the three greatest essentials
in combating tuberculosis. Naturally.
when a country neglects all of them
more or less and lives in positive ter
ror of the first, you can expect to
ind the disease Furnishing
In December of last year the war
victims fund was established to take
care of French tuberculous soldiers.
The sum of $11S,11S was collected
ana number of sanitariums opened.
| soldiers were collected from poor in
situations and those arriving from the
front were given the best of care. The
American worked as if inspired 1t
was their chance TO show the French
civilian population the proper meth
ods or treatment while curing their
soldiers, and they made the most of
| their opportunity.
The work has been SLOW owing to
lack of funds, but it is accomplishing
its purpose. Many soldiers have re-
/ covered, and the French people are
becoming educated to the value of
fresh air. Windows are being sawed
IN hundreds of peasant homes which
boosted none before the war The
propaganda of fresh air and santa
tiCn is having its effect.
The war has brought many strange
| diseases into the hospitals Modern
medical men have had to contend
with trench foot, trench back, nephri-
tbs, cholera, gangrene, gas poisoning
and typhuS. But their encounters
nave been swift and decisive; either
they conquered or they did not. With
tuberculosis it is different The prog
ress of the disease is slow and weak
enlng, and utterly devoid of the glory