difficult thing
for a soldier to obtain in the field is a bath. Normally he is in the
front line trenches for a week, in the reserve trenches for a week,
and in rest for a week. This means that he cannot get a bath for at
least two weeks, and he doesn't. So that though a soldier goes back
into the trenches clean and free from vermin he is sure to become
reinfected from lice left in the dugouts; or some lice eggs on his
clothes perhaps have escaped destruction, and he may be as lousy as
ever when he comes out of the trenches again. The old straw in the
barns and the billets is sure to be infected with lice, and it is very
difficult to sterilize the men's blankets. Consequently a persistent
continuous fight against this variety of vermin must be kept up, for
lice are not only a potential source of danger in transmitting typhus
fever and relapsing fever, but they are a great source of irritation
to the men and responsible for much loss of sleep.

The greatest luxury at the front is a hot bath, and these are provided
in every divisional area on the British front. Three or four miles
behind the trenches in the rest areas, in places where a plentiful
supply of water can be obtained, the army has established bath houses.
Sometimes a brewery, or part of it, has been taken over for this
purpose, because the breweries all have deep wells from which a
plentiful supply of water can be obtained. If the bath house is in a
brewery they may utilize the large beer barrels cut in two for baths.
These are filled with cold water and live steam turned into the water
to warm it. After the bath the men dump the barrels, which are
immediately refilled by attendants, for the next group.

Most of the bath houses, however, are in improvised shacks built upon
the edge of creeks or ponds. The water is pumped into an elevated
reservoir and heated frequently by means of a threshing machine
boiler, rented or purchased from some neighboring farmer. One section
of the shack is divided off for a bathroom with a number of showers
and the other rooms devoted to the receiving of dirty clothing,
storing the clean clothing, washing, drying and sterilizing.

As you pass along the road you will see perhaps a platoon or a section
of a platoon marching to the bath house, without belt or equipment,
and carrying towels. At the bath house a certain number, say twenty
men, pass into the first room where they undress. Their underclothes
and shirts are thrown to on