Trench Fever
a disease supposed to develop in troops who have been in the trenches, but apparently liable to attack individuals temporarily in training camps or convalescent hospitals. Efforts were made during the war to find the specific germ responsible for the disease, and organisms from a number of patients were cultivated on artifical mediums. The germ was found in the periosteum around with blood vessels of the tibialis anticus muscle, and occa- TRENCH WARFARE sionally in the blood. It showed itself in the form of a disk, about one-fortieth the size of a red blood corpuscle. Significance attaches to the fact that the micro-organism is likewise located in the stomach walls of the body louse, and the inference is that the vermin plays a part in the spread of the malady. Dr. M. Mandel, medical director of the United States Army Base Hospital No. 12, describes the disease as a distinct clinical entity, and defines it as an acute infectious disease of unknown etiology and selflimited course, characterized clinically by cyclic febrile attacks, intense headache and backache, and pair pains over the tibial which are particularly severe at night.
The rise in temperature is from 101 to 104° F., preceded by chilly sensations.
The febrile attacks may be repeated, but convalescence usually follows the third.
TRENCH WARFARE. Like everything else in military affairs, the use of the trench received a great development during the recent great war. Under the old conditions the trench was simply an excavation in the ground long or short, broad or narrow, the earth from which was thrown directly in front to form a barricade. The trench might be a temporary affair or it might be an element in a permanent and extensive fortification. They could play a part both in attack and defense. The dimensions of a trench, and its intricacy or simplicity, would naturally be determined largely by the length of time it was intended to use it. Troops kneeling would require a depth that would leave them space to see over the parapet. Men standing would require greater depth that parapets might be cut at the sides to stand on if greater depth was needed for protection. In the hastily dug trenches proper for soldiers engaged in attacking a depth of a couple of feet would be ample. The soldier lying prone would necessarily only hold the trench till he was enabled to advance still further.
In the development of military service that preceded the great war military engineers had long spoken of the value of the trench and the part it was likely to play in future warfare. In every European army, the troops, apart from the engineering units, had been taught to construct trenches of established types. It was foreseen that in modern warfare large armies would confront each other for long periods with their ends resting on the mountains and the sea and that opposing lines would be parallel to each other long distances and for indefinite periods. The idea then was to maintain the front line at a depth suit- TRENCH WARFARE able for standing, with room for the coming and going of a single file of soldiers. Arrangements on the top of the trench would help the soldier to find shelter and at the same time watch the enemy and hit him if possible. The faces of the trench were held firmly in a perpendicular position by planks, or sacks of earth. The spaces in front of the trenches were cleared so as to leave an unobstructed view, and obstructive barriers, such as barbed wire, were placed in positions where it was expected that the enemy might attack. All these methods received great development during the world war.
As the war progressed, and it was seen that the troops might continue to confront each other in almost the same positions for months and even for years, trench warfare naturally assumed proportions not before conceived of. The simple parallel lines of no great depth that had been the rule and theory hitherto were transformed into complicated designs that increased in depth, in variety, and in intricacy according to the conditions in a particular district. The line sank into subterranean passages and broadened into large covered areas with divisions for resting, eating, diversion, and sleeping. Attention had to be paid to the draining in swampy districts, and TRENDELENBURG 1871. Yet this tremendous fire was a necessary preliminary, if the barbed wire was to be cut, the machine guns destroyed and the trenches leveled. The arrival of the tank, which was in effect an armored motor car and military tractor, able to cross trenches and shell craters, proof against machine gun and rifle fire, and itself armed with machine guns, solved a problem that had hitherto been baffling. Nevertheless the trench showed itself capable of developments that are sure to affect all future warfare.
Trenches, under the development of warfare, may be dug to any depth, may be expanded to any breadth, may be divided and designed on any pattern, and may be re-enforced to any extent conditions may warrant. In view of the great part aeronautics are likely to play in the future warfare, the roof of the trench is likely to be a matter of immense importance, and trenches that lead to underground cities are not an impossible conception. Under the circumstances it was only in the nature of things that the mining of trenches was one of the great occupations of the war and approaches es were made in that manner which would have been impossible overground.