Before leaving this subject to deal with diseases and their avoidance, I would like to say a word or two on the congenial subject of REST. A soldier should get as much of it as he can, consistent, of course, with doing his duty. Never stand when you could as well be lying down. Throw yourself on the ground whenever you can, to rest, and let the whole body relax. When you are given a rest on the roadside, stretch out on your back and breathe as deeply as you can. Give your mind and body alike a vacation and you will feel the benefit of it at the end of the day. Don't spend your hours of beauty sleep in talking--get that done during the day. Your body will call for rest after the tiring duties of the day and you should give it all the rest you can. [Illustration: FIGURE 7: Trench with simple dugout under parapet.] [Illustration: FIGURE 8: Finished dugout, 6' × 4' × 4' with deep entrance and shrapnel-proofing.] CHAPTER III DISEASE If the rules of health set forth in the foregoing chapter are carefully observed, the soldier will be doing the best he can to keep his body fit. He will be building up a reserve of strength that will stand him in good stead should the germs of disease find entrance into his body. But there are times when, in spite of all our precautions, these little microbes get the upper hand, and a long struggle against them begins. The disease that has been responsible for the death of armies of soldiers is ENTERIC or TYPHOID fever. During the campaign in South Africa the British lost more men through the ravages of this disease than through bullets and shells. But during the present war there have been comparatively few cases of enteric, and the number that have proved fatal is very small. For this result we have to thank the medical profession that has given so much study and care to the perfection of a method of combating this disease. The secret has been found to lie in the inoculation of the soldier with small doses of the disease itself till he becomes comparatively immune to it. Inoculation was not made compulsory in the first armies that were raised in England after war broke out, but it was made compulsory for men who desired to become members of the British Expeditionary Force in France. Most men gladly accepted this medical boon and subjected themselves to this simple and painless operation. But there were others who objected, sometimes through fear of the pain, and sometimes through what they termed "conscientious objections." Anti-Inoculation Societies got busy and spread their wretched literature throughout the camps and made men thoroughly afraid, both of the operation and of its results. To meet this the War Office issued through the papers and by pamphlets, information from the medical authorities as to the wonderful results that had already been achieved. They were able to prove beyond all dispute, that of the men who caught the infection in France,