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TRENCHES
Has Discovered
of the War
EDGAR
The explosion of a high powered
shell also may cause, along
with other troubles, deafness.
This deafness may be due to
actual injury of the internal ear
or it may be solely functional.
In the latter cases prompt and
accurate diagnosis and efficient
treatment may restore the pa- \
ticnt's hearing.
Another form of malady that is quite
curious has developed from winter life
in the trenches. Men's feet have become
frost-bitten where there was no frost!
And so badly have many of these men
been afflicted with this paradoxical malady
that amputation of the afflicted members
has not been at all uncommon.
Death actually has occurred in some instances.
On a damp night, even though the
temperature may be a little above thirtytwo
degrees, Fahrenheit—that is, above
freezing—a man standing in a watersoaked
trench is not likely to feel comfortable
in his feet. Add to this the low
circulation that inevitably follows tight
fitting shoes and the lethargy of inaction,
and a man's feet will be as cold and
swollen and chapped as if he were standing
guard on a night with the temperature
way below zero. Obviously then
the remedy consists in easy fitting shoes
and in keeping the feet dry and warm.
There is more to this odd affliction,
too. French surgeons were by no means
satisfied that the low temperature was
the sole cause. They passed their doubts
along to two bacteriologists, Messrs.
Raymond and Parisot. These scientists
found another contributing cause, at least
in the more severe cases. They found
that the cold, damp trenches made an
ideal culture medium for a species of
fungus.
With mud oozing through any seam
or crack in the soldier's shoe, the fungus
found entrance, and the fissures in the
frost-bitten foot offered the last breach.
This fungus with cruel discrimination,
preferring to work about the roots of the
nails, proceeds to set up a most painful
form of inflammation and swelling. If
the temperature is sufficiently low, the
life of not only the foot but of the whole
body—the man himself—is endangered.
Thorough cleansing out of the afflicted
parts with camphorated soaps will eradicate
this fungus pest. The swelling
ordinarily will subside within a few days.
The severe nerve pains that this affliction
usually sets up may not pass away
however for from two to three weeks.
This disease, which the war has
brought to light, is by no means confined
to those serving in the trenches. It also
is an affliction with which any one working
around stables or out in the cold, wet
fields may find himself afflicted. In a
diagnosis of "frost bite" the physician
should examine very particularly into the
possibilities of the aggravation being
caused by Scopulariopsis Koningii, as
this pernicious fungus growth is known
among scientists, or its equally pernicious
and pestilential cousin, the fungus Sterigmatocystis.
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