or these cases. It was
mainly what is called bacillary dysentery, for which Epsom salts is one
of the best remedies. All typhoid cases, as soon as convalescent, were
sent to India. That was because they often carry the germs in the
intestinal tract a long time after recovery and therefore may become a
source of infection. They spent on an average three months in India
before returning for service. There was no place in Mesopotamia where
convalescent patients could be sent with a reasonable prospect of
gaining full health. About twenty miles beyond Aligarbi lie the
Pashtikhu hills and there in those high altitudes a big military
sanatorium might have been established. This would have saved endless
transport difficulties, if a light railway had been constructed. But no
doubt the military situation rendered the carrying out of such an idea
impracticable. Heat-stroke in Amara was common enough, but it did not
seem so fatal as at Basra. This, perhaps, was due to the air, which was
drier and fresher. The supply of ice was also more adequate.

We had some unlucky spells. It is a curious thing that luck seems to
enter into the matter of death rates. I mean that sometimes for two or
three days at a time cases seemed to go wrong and die, on the slightest
provocation. At other times, when the luck changed, the most hopeless
cases would clear up. It was the same way in the operating theatre. It
is the same way with everything, whether it be card playing, or
business, or war, or love, or thinking, or sport. There are phases in
which something seems to overshadow the scene. The direction of the
current changes. For a time everything seems to go wrong. The machinery
behind life, that is always helping you on, stops and reverses. And
there is another aspect of the same thing which doctors sometimes see in
a remarkable way. It is the occurrence of similar kinds of cases at the
same time. For part of it there is the scientific explanation of
infection by germs.

[Illustration: EZRA'S TOMB.]

The Shimal was now blowing from the north-west, bringing the dust in
from the desert. At times it produced a strange effect. The atmosphere
became dun-coloured, thickened at places into opaque and rushing veils.
Under the pressure of the strong, hot wind the big _mahallas_, with
their white sails in tense curves, careered down the river with only a
streak of white foam under the prow to show they were not suspended in
the air. The further bank, pa