HEALTH
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Be sober and temperate and you will be
healthy." This is in the main true and is excellent advice for the
soldier. But there are ills that are liable to affect the fighting man
in spite of his temperance and sobriety and of these we must speak.
The health of men in the army is, on the average, much better than that
of individuals outside of it. This is due to many causes chief of which
is the fact that only healthy men are admitted to the army. Then the
out-of-door life, regular and wholesome food, sufficient exercise and
"early to bed and early to rise" tend to keep him well. If he enters
the army fit, he must make it his business to remain fit and it will
be well to remember that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure." To preserve good health is his DUTY for only thus can he become
an efficient soldier. If the bodily resistance is weakened, man becomes
prey to the millions of germs that are to be found in the air and even
within his own system. When he is healthy the body is able to keep them
in subjection, but once let him permit his system to run down and these
armies of microbes will attack him with all their forces.
Now let us begin first of all with BODILY CLEANLINESS. No soldier can
come on parade unless his face and hands be clean. Shaving, though
sometimes a bore, is an excellent method of keeping the face clean
and fresh. It tends to smarten a man, and officers are not slow to
pick out the careful from the slovenly soldier. We used to reserve the
unpleasant tasks of the camp--latrine duties amongst others--for men
who would not keep their hands and faces clean. But there are other
parts of the body to which it is just as necessary to apply cleansing
methods regularly even though no military punishment follows the
violation of the rule. First of these that I would mention is the
TEETH. Soldiers, I find, are very careless in this matter till the
first thing you know is that someone is absent from parade because of
the toothache. On one occasion in the trenches, when we were very short
handed, an officer had to leave us for a week to go to the hospital
with a badly abscessed tooth due entirely to neglect. Cleaning the
teeth night and morning freshens the mouth and makes food taste better.
An excellent custom is to rinse the mouth after every meal, and while
this may often be inconvenient it can be done if a soldier remembers
to wash his mouth out with the first sip of water every time he takes
a drink. If the teeth are allowed to get very bad a man's digestion
suffers and he falls ill. This robs the army of part of its fighting
strength, a result which every soldier has an interest in avoiding.
[Illustration: FIGURE 1:
Showing use of natural cover by soldier lying down.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 2:
Showing use of sandbag and earth for protection.]
HAIR. No better advice can be given to the soldier on this subject than
"cut it short." The shorter the better, for when it is short it is easy
to keep clean both from body dirt and vermin. In this war soldiers have
almost invariably had the clippers run completely over their heads.
Soap and water are as good for the head as for any other part of the
body.
TRUNK. It is not always possible for soldiers to get a shower or plunge
every day, but a small sponge carried as part of the equipment will
help a good deal. In France, where the water was scarce, we had to make
it go a long way. When the enemy permitted, I used to get my regular
morning bath with the aid of the sponge and about a saucerful of water.
I felt like a canary during the process and wanted to chirp and flap
my wings. Soldiers should be encouraged to go in swimming whenever
circumstances permit. To go in swimming was not a military order in
my regiment, but we used to take the men to the sea and then ask who
wanted to go in. About eighty per cent of the men would volunteer. Then
we would tell off the remaining twenty per cent for vigorous physical
exercises and after ten minutes give them the choice of continuing
or taking a plunge in the sea. They all went in! Men's objections to
water usually come from habit and they soon learn to appreciate its
refreshing power.
FEET. "An army marches on its stomach"--metaphorically, but it marches
on its feet, literally, as every poor infantryman knows. And it has to
do a good deal of marching in war and in preparation for war. "Route
Marches" and "Hikes" are very popular with the training staff as the
soldier will find, and they are usually planned by the men who ride
horses! So important did we consider the care of the feet that we used
to have "TOE PARADES" twice a week with the Doctor in attendance.
Men with neglected feet were considered as candidates for cookhouse
garbage duty, and were promptly assigned to this task. In the first
place feet must be comparatively clean--soap and water recommended!
Then they should be free from corns. This is not so easy to accomplish.
Paring with a knife helps, but if they get too bad the doctor or the
chiropodist should be consulted. Another frequent source of trouble is
neglected toe nails. The best way is to cut them straight across, not
too far down, but so as to keep them from tearing the sock or cramping
the foot in the boot. Blisters sometimes arise on the feet. They should
be treated at once, mainly by removing the cause--which may be in the
boot itself or the sock--and then by bathing them in a solution of
boric acid. If the socks are kept oiled, or even if small pieces of
soap are put into the boots, this condition will, in large measure, be
avoided. I have seen many a pitiful case of men trailing along the road
well in rear of their company, limping and hobbling as best they could,
all due to the fact that they had not paid the attention to their feet
that they must if the feet are to do the work for which the army calls.
A few minutes attention per day given to these points will, I am
confident, help to procure and maintain health for the soldier. But
all his care will be wasted unless that which he takes _inside_ his
body is wholesome--food and drink. In camps the soldier usually has all
his food cooked for him, and it is the duty of his officers to see
that it is good in quality, sufficient in quantity, and reasonably well
cooked. As the soldier does the serving himself, that is entirely his
own lookout. In the trenches it is not possible to have things arranged
as one has in camp. The regimental cookers were usually stationed about
three miles from the firing line--for their safety--and all the food
was cooked there and sent up to the lines in boxes or sandbags, and
apportioned to the various platoons according to the number of men on
the strength. Three times a week the cooks were given fresh meat to
prepare for us--when the Government says it is fresh it is fresh even
in Summer time and when the flies have been busy--and for the other
days we subsisted on canned meats or "bully beef" as it was called. The
meat was either baked or boiled, though sometimes we got a stew--in
camp we got too many stews! Potatoes were boiled, usually in their
jackets. This food we could heat in the trenches in our individual
cooking apparatus, which also served to cook our ration of bacon for
breakfast, while in the upper part of the tin we made tea.
Of course in the trenches we had to eat whatever we could get, but our
lot was relieved considerably by the arrival of delicacies from England
by the parcel post. This sometimes subjected us to the temptation
that we were under while in training, and that was to eat pastry and
suchlike food, which, while very appetising, is not to be recommended
as a diet for the soldier.
[Illustration: FIGURE 3:
Showing position of body behind earth, and direction of fire round
right side of cover.]
On the question of DRINK my views have become very pronounced since
my experience with the army. Undoubtedly the best universal drink for
the soldier is tea--preferably weak. I should say water were it always
possible to get water that is pure. But during a campaign pure water
is a luxury. By making the water into tea you make sure that it gets
boiled, and by the addition of tea you get a beverage that has not
the insipid sickly flavour of boiled or sterilised water. Coffee is
preferred by Americans, I know, but there are dangers to be recognised
especially by those whose hearts are inclined to be weak.
With regard to alcohol I would most heartily recommend total
abstinence. I need scarcely remind American readers that there is not
a single front rank baseball manager that allows his men to indulge
in alcohol. From my own experience I could tell of many men who were
permanently rendered unfit as soldiers through foolish indulgence.
Of the men who were brought before the Colonel for more or less
serious crimes, 90 per cent of them owed their humiliation directly
to alcohol, and 5 per cent of them to alcohol indirectly. I know that
it is possible for some men to take alcohol in moderation. Not many
continue to do so, and sooner or later there is almost certain to
be an overindulgence. In the British army men were sentenced to the
extreme penalty--death--for being intoxicated while on active service
in France. I say without hesitation that the best men I had were the
abstainers and the worst men I had were the drinkers. Alcohol weakens
the tissues of the body, it lowers its vitality and makes it an easy
victim to disease, and worse still, it rapidly obscures the mind. For
a war of the kind that is being waged in Europe a man needs to have
his head very clear, and this he cannot do if he is the victim of the
alcohol habit.
Many total abstainers from alcohol are tempted to take "gassy" drinks,
fizzes and so forth. These tend to shorten the wind and should
therefore be avoided.
If plain water has to be drunk, care should be taken to see that it
is reasonably pure, and all vessels such as water bottles should be
thoroughly rinsed each time before using.
[Illustration: FIGURE 4:
Trench system showing fire, support and reserve trenches; redoubts;
communicating trenches; saps; listening posts, etc.]
When these simple rules of eating and drinking are followed many of the
dangers incidental to army life will be avoided, and physical fitness
established.
A kindred subject is that of SMOKING. This habit has become so
universal in the British army that it is almost true to say that every
one smokes. From my own experience I have seen very few ill effects
from it except in cases of obvious overindulgence. But undoubtedly it
is easy to overdo the cigarette business, and on this point I would
utter a word of warning. Pipes are to be preferred, though I admit
it is difficult to get men to smoke anything else than cigarettes in
the trenches. In the monotony and strain of trench life, and from the
need to do something to keep the stench of decaying bodies from the
nostrils, men do smoke to excess. There is some excuse there, but
during training at home every man must endeavour to be reasonable in
his indulgence.
CLOTHING. I have found that men are very apt to load themselves up
with all sorts of useless items of apparel. In their endeavour to keep
warm they have often badly overdone it with the result that they have
found themselves perspiring and exhausted in the midst of an important
piece of physical labour. Of course the soldier will need to see to it
that his underclothes are sufficiently warm to keep out the extreme
cold, but it is better to _add_ something to the clothing from time to
time--such as a Cardigan waistcoat--than to be equipped permanently
with the heaviest kind of underclothes. Above all, avoid those garments
that are being offered extensively to unsuspecting men, and which,
while they will undoubtedly keep you warm, will also prevent the proper
perspiration of the body. The body _must_ be allowed to perspire and
the air must be allowed to carry off the perspiration. Woollens are the
best for this purpose, and though the initial cost of them is rather
great, they are worth it in the long run.
BOOTS. In the paragraph on feet I couldn't help mentioning the matter
of boots, but it is so important that, at the risk of too great
repetition, I want to mention it again. You must have boots that are
right, otherwise you will soon be lamed and thus be out of action.
And every man out of action "counts two on a division." We found it
advisable in France to get boots that were large enough to accommodate
the feet and _two_ pairs of socks--one thin and one thick pair. Into
the boots we poured a small quantity of oil, or between the socks we
put small pieces of soap to keep the feet in good condition. You will
find that the feet must be oiled if they are to stand the work of a
campaign.
[Illustration: FIGURE 5:
Showing method of cutting trench; parapet and parados; drainage.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 6:
Showing riveting; flooring made of boards and chicken wire; drainage.]
But sometimes injuries are caused to the feet by other parts of
the clothing of a soldier. Men frequently laced their puttees or
leggins too tight and found that they suffered pains in the feet--the
circulation was being stopped. This rendered them very liable to
frostbite, than which there is nothing more painful. If there are signs
of freezing, remove the boots as soon as possible and restore the
circulation. But if the feet are actually frozen the soldier is in for
a long and tedious illness, and will be lucky if he does not need to
have his feet amputated. I am told that, during the first campaign in
the Carpathians, the Central Powers lost 25,000 men per day with frozen
feet.
Before leaving this subject to deal with diseases and their avoidance,
I would like to say a word or two on the congenial subject of REST. A
soldier should get as much of it as he can, consistent, of course, with
doing his duty. Never stand when you could as well be lying down. Throw
yourself on the ground whenever you can, to rest, and let the whole
body relax. When you are given a rest on the roadside, stretch out on
your back and breathe as deeply as you can. Give your mind and body
alike a vacation and you will feel the benefit of it at the end of the
day. Don't spend your hours of beauty sleep in talking--get that done
during the day. Your body will call for rest after the tiring duties of
the day and you should give it all the rest you can.
[Illustration: FIGURE 7:
Trench with simple dugout under parapet.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 8:
Finished dugout, 6' × 4' × 4' with deep entrance and
shrapnel-proofing.]