VERMIN
I feel that no hints on health would be complete without some brief
reference to the "terrors of the trenches"--LICE. A learned Professor
of one of the Universities of England published a little book whose
exact title I have forgotten but which was something like this--"Flees,
Lice and Bugs, or, the Little Brothers of the Prussian." That is
pretty hard on the enemy--or the lice--but it serves to emphasise
one important point and that is, that the ravages of these vermin is
so great that they can well be said to be fighting the same cause as
the enemy. In spite of all a soldier can do, lice are sure, sooner or
later, to overtake him. They make their nests in the straw upon which
he throws himself when fatigued, or in the walls of houses, or on
other human beings, and contact is almost sure to bring them. They are
most interesting little pets whose sole interest in life seems to be
to lay eggs and thus make sure that their race shall be perpetuated.
The female louse takes up her abode upon the soldier's body and
immediately sets herself to an egg laying competition. If she gets
five minutes start of her victim she lays up for him weeks of trouble,
and the only thing to do is to go after her and her eggs as soon as
her presence is made known. I discovered my first louse while I was at
luncheon in the trenches. I seized the spot on my arm where I believed
her to be, and calling to my orderly hurried off to the fields some
distance behind the lines. There we began the hunt which ended, I am
happy to be able to say, in her decease. But the eggs had been laid
and not for weeks did I succeed in ridding myself of these unwelcome
boarders. I was, much against my will, used as a perambulating
incubator, and only the greatest vigilance served to rid me of the
pests.
[Illustration: FIGURE 12:
Trench periscopes.]
It was our custom, as soon as we were relieved from the trenches for
a spell of a few days, to turn all the men out into a field and bid
them "Hunt!" I used then to walk around amongst the men and enquire of
them what luck they had had. "Two," "Seven," "Nineteen," etc., were
the frequent replies. One of the saddest men I have ever seen replied
"None, Sir." His unhappiness was due to the fact that he was perfectly
well aware that there were some there to be caught, but that he had
not yet had the luck to get them.
As to means of combating them, the best is constant vigilance. Make
sure that not only the live lice are killed but that the eggs as well
are destroyed, say with the ash of a lighted cigarette. The next
thing to remember is that body lice are opposed to cleanliness, and
that the oftener you can wash yourself, the more you inconvenience
them. Gasoline squirted over the body and the clothes also serves to
discourage them. Some thin cotton shirts covered with a solution of
carbolic, had a good effect, and at the least they served as another
barrier to the little rascals before they could reach the body.
Since I returned to this country, a manufacturer of vermin killers told
me that the following method will be found effective: Take a goose
quill and seal up one end. Put in half an inch of mercury, and then
seal the other end making a little phial of about an inch and a half in
length. Sew this to the clothes under each armpit and round the belt
line. As to whether this will work I do not know, for I am glad to be
able to say that I have not needed to test the theory since I returned
to America.
FLEAS are not so common, but when they occur, they must be hunted
with the same vigilance as lice, and the same methods apply to their
extermination. As carriers of typhus, they are particularly to be
dreaded.