Excerpt from New York Medical Journal, Vol. 106: Incorporating the Philadelphia Medical Journal and the Medical News; July 7, 1917

The following paragraph (1) is interesting as showing both the occurrence of cholera in Germany during this war and the prompt and heroic measures adopted to stamp it out: On cholera appearing in M a hospital for cholera cases and suspects was established, the streets where cases occurred were isolated, intercourse between citizens and troops inhibited, streets and yards were sprayed, etc., etc. Prophylactic inoculation was begun on the day following the appearance of the disease and the second dose had been given to all by the ninth day. The last sentence may cause the soldier to shudder in anticipation of still another series of shots in the arm as protection against cholera, to which he will undoubtedly be subjected if it is necessary.

Dysentery. - Those who served during the Span ish - American War will recall the ravages made by diarrheal diseases among the troops, even those en camped in our own cities. What has been said of typhoid, the paratyphoids, and cholera, can be ap plied to this class of disease with equal force. In enforcing prophylactic measures it might be well to emphasize that no less stringent measures should be adopted. Among the diarrheas suffered by the Eng lish troops, certain of the cases were designated sand diarrhea; they followed sandstorms and were ascribed to the irritation of the bowels by the sand, or to the dissemination of the germs by the winds. In either case it would seem that protection of foods and utilization of, perhaps, the gas mask while such storms raged would prevent the occur rence of these cases.

Tuberculosis - The white plague has so long been a subject of universal dread and popular discussion that I can add little to the information already well known of the measures advocated for its preyen tion, but because of the importance it is assuming as a decimator of men in the trenches, it is essential to emphasize certain rules to prevent its further in roads. Of sixty British soldiers discharged from a London hospital as no longer fit for service, twenty-two were marked down by the examining medical board as suffering from chronic tuberculo sis. All evidence tended to prove that these men had been lung sound when they enlisted. The Brit ish experts who canvassed the subject concluded: Modern trench warfare, with its terrible exposure to extremes of heat and cold, under the most um healthy 'conditions, is bound to cause an excess of pulmonary complaints among men not up to the strain The last point incidentally is an elo quent argument in favor of adequate physical train ing and hardening of the men.

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