Saturday As usual week end cleaning. Medical lecture this a.m. Slept this afternoon wrote letters tonight Am in the very Best of health
Saturday morning medical lectures were primarily concerned with disease prevention, an important goal for the medical services. Soldiers are vulnerable to wounds in combat, obviously, but vulnerable also to diseases of all kinds, especially those which thrive in close quarters.
It was a matter of pride for the Canadian Medical Services that disease caused only a small proportion of the casualties during the Great War, a striking difference from the Boer War. Statistics, however, are easily misread. The high number of wounded and the severity of their wounds in this war might simply make the proportion of deaths from disease seem small. (1) Disease prevention had undeniably improved: writing after the end of the war, Sir Andrew MacPhail confidently predicted that typhoid, which had long been the most prevalent disease of war, was “about to drop out of the nomenclature of military medicine,” (2) because of improved sanitary measures and inoculation.
If they weren’t harping on the theme of venereal disease, today’s lecturers might have been explaining the regulation first instituted at Witley in 1915, which required that every glass or cup used in a public place of refreshment should have its rim dipped in boiling water in the presence of the customer. (3) It was a measure intended to reduce the incidence of trench mouth, or “infectious stomatitis,” and was viewed, according to MacPhail, “with a certain humourous toleration” (3) by bartenders. It was more a reminder of the need for cleanliness than a real prophylactic, inn fact, since trench mouth is not infectious. Instead, the inflammation of gums and lips is caused by bacteria which are normally present in the mouth, but which grow unchecked by good oral care. Indeed, college students at exam time, we are told, are afflicted with trench mouth, brought about by the same conditions as prevailed in the war zone: smoking, eating poorly, sleeping little or badly, neglecting toothbrushing, and suffering stress.(4)
Gunner J.M. Inglis’ cartoon showing the Medical Officer at work is from The O.Pip. 1:2 (May 1917).8. The M.O. is dispensing the same remedy to all three patients.
(1) MacPhail, Andrew. The Medical Services. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914-1919. Ottawa, 1925. 241, 243.
(2) MacPhail, 250.
(3) MacPhail, 265.
(4) Walters, Perry. “WW 1 Diseases of the Trenches. Part 3. Trench Mouth.” Kansas WW1. (blog).
Percy's War 