s task was carried out under
conditions which no other civilised country would permit for a moment,
for the simple reason that antiseptic precautions were conspicuous by
their complete absence. The order arrived that we were to be vaccinated
on such and such a morning "in the interests of the camp--both prisoners
and soldiers." We were ordered to line up in a queue outside a small
building which we were to enter singly in succession. We were commanded
to have our arms bared to the shoulder in readiness. Vaccination was not
carried out by Dr. Ascher, the official medical attendant to the camp,
but by a young military doctor who came especially for the purpose.

Whether it was because the temperature within the small building was too
sultry or not I cannot say, but the vaccinator decided to complete his
work in the open air, the fact that a dust-storm was raging
notwithstanding. The military doctor was accompanied by a colleague
carrying a small pot or basin which evidently contained the serum. The
operation was performed quickly if crudely. The vaccinator stopped
before a man, dipped his lance or whatever the instrument was into the
jar, and gripping the arm tightly just above the elbow, made four big
slashes on the muscle. The incisions were large, deep, and
brutal-looking. Then he passed to the next man, repeating the process,
and so on all along the line. He took no notice of the dust which was
driving hither and thither in clouds.

Whether by misfortune or mishap I received four striking gashes, and the
shape of the incisions made me wonder whether the vaccinator thought he
was playing a game of noughts and crosses with a scalpel upon my arm.
After we had been wounded in this manner we were in a quandary. Our arms
were thickly covered with the drifting sand. Our shirt sleeves were
equally soiled. Consequently infection of the wound appeared to be
inevitable whatever we did. In this unhappy frame of mind and dirty
condition we were dismissed. Unfortunately for me I proved resistant to
the serum, and had to submit to the operation a second time with equally
abortive results. One or two of the prisoners suffered untold agonies,
blood-poisoning evidently setting in to aggravate the action of the
serum.

The primitive sanitary arrangements which prevailed brought one plague
upon us. We suffered from a pestilence of flies which under the
circumstances was not surprising, everything being conducive to their
propagation.