r had
evidently been prepared for a painless passage across the Styx when
such necessity arose.

Occasionally we had to investigate possible cases of cholera among
troops coming from India. One day we received a telegram to proceed to
a certain place about ten miles away and report on the sanitary
surroundings and particularly on the water supply of a place where an
old Frenchman had died with "choleric dysentery." We found the place
after some search, and discovered that the old man had died a month
before, and that the suspected water supply, unboiled, had been used
ever since by a certain headquarter staff without ill effects.
Needless to say that was the best proof obtainable that the water
supply was safe.

The use of raw milk was forbidden in the army, and condensed milk was
issued instead. Sometimes "blown" cans of this were sent in for
examination and found to be infected with gas producing organisms.
Whenever such occurred, the report would be forwarded back through the
system to England and the manufacturer would be apprised of the fact
and checked up on his methods. Canned foods of various sorts were also
brought in for examination, but nothing of a harmful character ever
discovered. The food supply of the British Army, as a matter of fact,
was of the highest quality and had been subjected to rigid examination
by the Government inspectors during its preparation; practically none
of it was ever found to be bad.

Another unusual problem arose out of the fact that several soldiers
had contracted anthrax, both in England and in France, and the shaving
brushes issued were suspected of being the cause. We undertook to
search them for anthrax spores, but found it was too long and tedious
a job for a field laboratory, for the brushes were full of spores of
all kinds. Later on in England anthrax was actually found by other
bacteriologists in some of these brushes, according to reports
published.

These few examples taken at random will serve to demonstrate the
varied character of the work of a field laboratory, and to show that a
certain amount of experience is necessary in order to handle some of
the problems affectively. We were peculiarly fortunate in our combined
experience. Major Rankin, a first rate pathologist and bacteriologist
of the government of Alberta, had been in charge of the government
laboratory at Siam for five years previous to the war, and knew
tropical medicine like a book, while Captain Ell