SOLDIERS AND INOCULATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16348, 3 April 1915, Page 2

SOLDIERS AND INOCULATION

EVIDENCE FROM THE FIGHTING UNE. ■ MOST REMARKABLE FIGURES. (Fbom Ode Own Correspondent.) - LONDON, February 2. \ A statement of the highest importance regarding the sanitary conditions of. the British Expeditionary Force was made by Sir Frederick Treves at the Society of Arts. Incidentally, the opponents of inoculation are put completely out of court. The occasion was the second of the. course of Chadwick lectures on "Wat and Disease"- by Dr F. M. Sandwith. Sir Frederick Treves presided,, and.after referring' to the war in South Africa, and the Russo-Japanese war, of both of which. ' he had experience, he said he did not hesitate to declare that the sanitary arrangements in the present war -were ' absolutely unprecedented. They were without any kind of parallel. As. a member <jf the Army Sanitary Committee at the War Office he could speak assurance on. that point. When the history of this war came to be written and read, one of the most astounding and magnificent features in it would, be found to be the sanitary precautions that- had been taken, and the sanitary measures that had been carried out, to secure the health of': our soldiers, and their care in time of disease. But although typhoid might be rendered immensely less by proper education of the soldier, by the care arid-knowledge of the medical men, and by sanitary arrangements, it could not by these measures be eradicated. A further precaution was needed, and that precaution was afforded by inoculation. LAST WORD ON THE MATTER.

Sir Frederick continued: "The troth of this at this moment admits oi no kind, of doubt. ;■ The results in the present Expeditionary Force have been ■ positively astonishing. Since the war began, there have been in the British Expeditionary Force only 212 cases of typhoid fever. Of these 201 were unprotected men. Of the 201, 173 had not been inoculated at all, while 28 had received, either one inoculation or had not been inoculated for a period of over two years. Of the 212, only 11 men had been inoculated. These figures cannot be gainsaid. Moreover, among these 212 patients there .were. 22 deaths.. All these deaths were in the cases of non-inoculated men. Not a .single man had died of typhoid fever in the British Expeditionary Force who had been inoculated. I imagine that there is nothing more to be said on. the matter, if facts are of any value, and those who attempt to persuade the soldier not to be inoculated are playing into the hands of the enemy, and giving him exactly the advice the Germans would be only too pleased' to give him."

HOUSE AMBULANCE Referring to the revolution of transport' which in tne present war was carried out by admirable ambulance trains and motor ambulances, Sir Frederick said they would be interested to hear that right up at the very front there were a motor, laboratory, motor kitchens, and motor ambulances of all kinds. At the same time, we should apparently never be able to dispense at the actual firing lines with the. old horse ambulance. A motor could get into a ditch, but it could not get out of one. A . horse ambulance could. And, moreover, another curious thing was that at present no motor oould travel a whole day with a column; that was to say, it could not, owing to gearing, travel at three miles an i hour for 12 hours. Hence his' belief that they would never be able to dispense alto-, gether with the horse' ambulance. . . HEALTH OF THE NAYY. At the same time, Sir William J. Collins made an interesting statement on the health of the navy. Very few people, he said, knew how enormously the health of the navy had improved in the . last'3s years. When he entered it in 1878 the sick rate per 1000 men was 47 per day. It was now 25. The invaliding rate in 1878 was 35 per 1000 ; to-day it was 15. The death rate at that time was 6 per 1000; to-day it was only 2. If, Sir William pointed out, the sick rate in the navy now had been equal to the sick rate of 38 years ago every day they would be having . 5030 more men on the sick list. The improvement placed in the fighting line , the crews of no fewer than seven dreadnoughts, and it had been achieved by attention' to hygienic measures. The medical services trusted largely to the education of the men of the navy, every single one of whom attended lectures upon the hygiene of his life.