with a dead Frenchman in it!"

The Belgian Soldiers' Fund in the spring of 1915 sent out an appeal,
which said:

"The full heat of summer will soon be upon the army, and the dust of
the battlefield will cause the men to suffer from an intolerable
thirst."

This is a part of the appeal:

"It is said that out of the 27,000 men who gave their lives in the
South African war 7000 only were killed, whilst 20,000 died of
enteritis, contracted by drinking impure water.

"In order to save their army from the fatal effects of contaminated
water, the Belgian Army medical authorities have, after careful tests,
selected the following means of sterilisation--boiling, ozone and
violet rays--as the most reliable methods for obtaining large supplies
of pure water rapidly.

"Funds are urgently needed to help the work of providing and
distributing a pure water supply in the following ways:

"1. By small portable sterilising plants for every company to produce
and distribute from twenty to a hundred gallons of pure cold water per
hour.

"2. By sterilisers easy of adjustment for all field hospitals,
convalescent homes, medical depots, and so forth.

"3. By large sterilising plants, capable of producing from 150 gallons
upward per hour, to provide a pure water supply for all the devastated
towns through which the army must pass.

"4. By the sterilisation of contaminated pools and all surface water,
under the direction of leading scientific experts who have generously
offered their services.

"5. By pocket filters for all who may have to work out of reach of the
sterilising plants, and so forth.

"6. By two hundred field kitchens on the battlefield to serve out
soup, coffee or other drinks to the men fighting in the trenches or on
the march."

Everywhere, at the front, I found the gravest apprehension as to water
supply in case the confronting armies remained in approximately the
same position. Sir John French spoke of it, and the British are
providing a system of sterilised water for their men. Merely providing
so many human beings with water is a tremendous problem. Along part of
the line, quite aside from typhoid contamination, the water is now
impregnated with salt water from the sea. If even wells contain dead
bodies, how about the open water-courses? Wounded men must have water.
It is their first and most insistent cry.

People will read this who have never known the thirst of the
battlefield or the parched throat t