168 newspapers printed in the German interest outside the Fatherland. The object of the article was to reassure the German public as to the attitude of neutral powers; but the results are more reassuring to those who in the past have attached too much weight to the press. What is meant by the reference to the publications of commercial agencies is well known to any one who has visited Italy since August last. We do not know how many of the 168 newspapers referred to were Italian, but the attempt to influence the press went far beyond the utilisation of controlled newspapers. There was hardly any paper so insignificant that it did not receive the attention of German agents. Nor were papers notoriously hostile left alone. Every kind of pressure was exercised. We know from reports of proceedings in the Courts that there has been abundant evidence of bribery and of treating on an elaborate scale; but this method was applied of course only to the more disreputable organs. The threat of withholding advertisements, when emanating from a body controlling large commercial interests, was, in the case of a struggling paper, not unlikely to be effective. News was syndicated to the smaller papers with local circulation, while to the more important organs original material was supplied gratuitously in great abundance. Most of it was, however, so exuberant in tone and so pedantic in manner as at once to betray its origin, thus becoming useless for purposes of propaganda. The most pertinacious workers in this field of operations were the German consuls; but their influence was only occasionally successful. German consuls have multifarious functions; besides acting as press agents, they also assisted the passage of contraband goods to Germany. Ezio M. Gray gives many details of their work. Since his book was written, in fact ten days before the declaration of war against Austria, the German consul pleaded the urgency of consigning at once to Germany 200 cases declared to contain salted fish lying in the port of Genoa. In transit to the station one of the cases burst open and revolvers fell out. This led to the examination of the other cases, which were found to contain only revolvers. Though no consul is involved, an incident which occurred at the port of Venice should be told, as it opened the eyes of Italy to the ingenuity and the intentions of the Germans. Through an accidental discovery by one of the docklabourers, 92 barrels declared to contain beer and consigned by the Patzenliefer Brewery in Berlin to Tripoli were found to contain 545 French (no doubt captured) rifles and 27,300 cartridges. Had these rifles been found in the hands of natives, it would have led to complication with France; and that no doubt was what was hoped for. Spying should, I suppose, strictly be regarded as coming within the term 'peaceful penetration,' but the Italian literature on the subject is already too vast to be dealt with in this paper. One would have supposed that, as in Italy the naval construction and the factories for armaments, munitions and cement factories are mostly managed by Germans, and as the electrical machinery and appliances are supplied from Germany and frequently put in by German workmen, there would be very little left to spy; but the evidence contained in Ezio M. Gray's book is sufficient to show that this supposition is erroneous. In conclusion, we may say that Italians are by character, history and traditions a very tolerant people. While they have never had feelings of affinity for Germans, they have not in the past actively disliked them; what has now angered them is the German claim to dominate them in their national life. The two nations have complementary qualities and should in time learn to respect each other, but Italy does not need or desire interference in her development. L'Italia farà da se.' ALBERT BALL. Art. 9.-WAR, WOUNDS, AND DISEASE. To the truth of the saying that disease, not battle, digs the soldier's grave the campaigns of the 19th century bear ample witness. How great may be the losses from this cause was never shown more terribly than in the illfated Walcheren Expedition (1809), when 23,000 men out of 39,000 died in four months; only 217 were killed! In 1828 a Russian army, 100,000 strong, marched on Turkey; victorious in the field, it was completely vanquished in the hospitals, which in July 1829 contained 40,000 men, more than half of the available strength. Of the whole force, only 15,000 returned to Russia. Since the Crimean War there has been a gratifying reduction in the deaths from disease. The accompanying diagram from an article by M. N. Kozlovski shows the proportion of killed in battle and deaths from wounds and disease, in certain wars of the last and present centuries. * Translated by Major G. S. McLoughlin, D.S.O., in the 'Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps,' vol. xviii, 1912, p. 345. The Russo-Japanese War saw the lowest proportion, but the figures in the diagram of the Russian Army may be for only one section of the Army. Captain Culmann, analysing the losses in the Franco-German and RussoJapanese wars ('Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps,' vol. XIII), gives the following figures: 28,800 or 4.9 per cent. of effective strength. Russians The Germans in the Franco-Prussian War had one killed for every six wounded, the Russians one for every five, and the Japanese one for every four. The percentage of the men who subsequently died from wounds was 37 in the Russians, 6.6 in the Japanese, and 11·0 in the Germans. As regards the sick, the following For the first ten months of the present war to May 31, 1915, the casualties in the Army have been 258,069. A complete analysis is not yet possible. The killed number 50,342, the equivalent of the annual toll taken in England alone by one bacillus, that of tubercle. Of the wounded, 153,980, I am informed that up to date 60 per cent. have returned to duty. A gap in our knowledge relates to the 53,747 men missing, of whom a considerable proportion are no doubt killed or wounded. It is interesting to study the character of the cases and the results of treatment of an unselected group of men sent home from France. A report by Dr Beal of the first 1000 treated at the American Women's War Hospital, Paignton, states that 783 were surgical and 215 medical. Three patients died, and only 3.3 per cent. have been invalided, so that a great majority of the 1000 cases discharged have been marked as fit for duty of some kind. Of the 783 surgical cases 265 were non-traumatic, 144 of them frostbites in various degrees. Of the medical cases there were 17 of dysentery, 11 of rheumatic fever, and only one of typhoid. The public should read these heavy and calamitous casualty lists with a knowledge that a very large proportion of the wounded get perfectly well, and that up to date some 60 per cent. have returned to duty. The returns for disease are not yet available, but, when the analysis is completed, we shall find that coughs and colds, pneumonia, rheumatic fever, bronchitis, and muscular rheumatism, particularly what is called trench rheumatism, have been responsible for a large proportion of the sickness. It may be of interest to review briefly the more serious camp diseases to which wounded and healthy are liable, among which the infections due to micro-organisms come first in order of importance. Wound Infection.-At the close of the American Civil War, fifty years ago, we did not know the cause of any one of the great war pestilences. To-day, with the germs of all discovered, we have in our hands the effective weapon suggested by the axiom of Celsus-Eum vero recte curaturum, quem prima origo causæ non fefellerit.' Our position in 1865 was not much better than in the days of Hippocrates and Galen. That fevers are catching, that epidemics spread, that infection remains attached to clothing, all suggested a living something' of the nature of a ferment; and among the many shrewd guesses the best parallel was that drawn between the processes of contagion and of fermentation. In the hands of Pasteur the experimental method completely revolutionised our knowledge of disease and the methods of prevention. Certain facts of primary importance have been determined by the studies of the past half-century: (1) the specific nature of the seeds of disease, which breed as true as do the seeds of wheat, and show varieties as easily distinguished by the expert as is Manitoba red from Forfar wheat; (2) the germs, artificially grown, show special chemical and biological characters, and, when introduced into the bodies of susceptible animals, produce the specific disease; (3) the changes in the body fluids caused by the growth of the germ have been thoroughly studied we know how immunity is produced after recovery from a fever, and against many diseases this immunity can be artificially induced by the inoculation with the germs or the products of their growth; and (4) the part played by insects in the transmission of disease |