SOLDIERS KILLED BY THEIR STRAPS

Lake County Press, Issue 978, 5 September 1901, Page 2

SOLDIERS KILLED BY THEIR STRAPS

All medical men recognise the fact that even in times of absolute peace, our soldiers are. through the nature of their employment, subject to certain ailments that are almost unknown in the case of any other class of men, and quite a large proportion of these arise, or have arisen, from the metliod in which accoutrements, and particularly straps, are worn. Whatever the outfit of a soldier of today may or may not be, it is, at any rate, the last and the highest expression of scientific opinion as to what he may carry and wear with least danger to his ', ealth. Even to-day—a case has been reported within the last few weeks —men who have served with the colors die of what is known to all medical men as "soldier's until very recent times great men succumbed to this complaint. ™ It is a curious form of heart disease that has been originally brought into existence through the old-fashioned cross-straps that pressed against the soldier's chest, and particularly just over the region of the he4ft. Often enough men endured this pressure, day in, day out, for months at a stretch, in hilly country, and the effect upon their hearts was most lamentable. Lord Napier, of Mugdalu, felt partfntlarly on this subject, and once gave it as his opinion that thousands of :me, big men annually were ruined in health by the cross-strap. Even .to this day doctors disagree as to whether.the modern shoulderstrap will altogether relieve the strain, though not the pressure, on the region of the heart --'Herald of Health.' A private citizen intends investing £SO,&S» in artisans' dwellings in Cape Town.