The excess of
acid was treated with lime which neutralized it, and the excess of
lime was removed by soda. The water was all filtered before it was
returned to the pond into which it flowed just as clear as it had been
before, and with enough hardness present to give it a lather with
soap.
The system was operated during the whole summer and gave complete
satisfaction. It really did what nature would have done in a much
longer time and with a much bigger plant. Had the pond been used to
bathe in direct it would have been unfit for use in the course of a
few days, whereas by the method employed it was always perfectly sweet
and clean.
The common sense and resourcefulness of the British sanitary officer
is well shown by this solution of a difficult and apparently hopeless
problem. It is indeed a difficult problem which a British officer will
acknowledge to be hopeless, and it is this very British quality that
the Hun should always keep in mind in thinking of the end of the war
and the reckoning afterwards.
As far as we know there has been no plague among the warring armies in
Europe. Plague is conveyed from rats having this disease to human
beings by means of rat fleas. These fleas become infected by biting
the infected rats and subsequently infect human beings by biting them.
There are plenty of rats in the trenches and dugouts, particularly in
winter; in the summer they breed along the water courses, and in the
autumn are attracted to the trenches where there is plenty of waste
food to be had.
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