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.

FIGURE 1:
Showing use of natural cover by soldier lying down.

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.

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