Typhoid fever had always been prevalent in South Africa; the first cases in the English army were observed during the hurried march to Bloemfontein along the Modder River, on which the soldiers were dependent for drinking-water, despite the fact that typhoid fever was known to be raging in places further upstream. The Berkefeld and Pasteur filters yielded too little water, for the reason that they soon became clogged; the soldiers used boiled water with reluctance, for the reason that it took so long for it to cool. Another source of infection besides the water was the fine dust that was stirred up by daily wind-storms; this dust, being full of disease-germs, contributed greatly to the dissemination of typhoid fever. Furthermore, the crowding together of soldiers in tents caused many of them to contract the disease by direct communication.[307] Jameson, the chief of the army’s medical staff, lamented the fact that sanitary officers (hygienists), originally appointed to accompany each division of troops, were dismissed. The regular doctors, who were then called upon to perform their functions, were fully occupied with taking care of the wounded, and were probably not well informed as to hygienic investigations and measures. The results obtained from preventive inoculation, which was practised on some of the soldiers, were in general satisfactory. In other places the conditions were similar to those along the Modder River; in Paardeberg the available drinking-water was equally bad, and in Bloemfontein there was an explosion-like outbreak of fever. From the beginning of the campaign to the middle of the year 1900 there were 13,057 cases of disease in the army, and of those 3,174 terminated fatally; the total number of cases during the entire war was no less than 42,741. The English troops that were shut up in Ladysmith from November 1, 1899, to February 27, 1900, were very severely attacked by typhoid fever. In the first part of November the English garrison had consisted of 13,496 men, and by March it had dwindled down to 10,164 men. The number of sick soldiers committed to the lazaret amounted to no less than 10,668, and of these 1,766 had typhoid fever and 1,857 had dysentery; 383 of the former and 117 of the latter died. When the Boers withdrew there were 1,996 patients in the hospital, 708 of them suffering from typhoid fever, 341 from dysentery, and 189 from wounds.[308]