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156 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
they will sit tightly packed and even on the roof. Thus the
wounded are conveyed to the principal intermediate base on
the lines of communication, from which they proceed by rail
or by canal or river to the home base. I have previously
discussed the organisation of the hospital service within the
zone of the lines of communication. I will only remark here
that just as the Principal Medical Officer of the Army Corps
has a Consulting Surgeon, so the Principal Medical Officer at
the Lines of Communication Hospital has a Consulting Sanitary
Officer who is likewise, in peace time, a University professor.
The latter has to examine all suspicious cases of infection and
to prescribe all necessary measures of precaution to prevent
any outbreak of infectious diseases. The Sanitary Officer is
provided with a bacteriological laboratory and is expected to
investigate carefully every individual case of typhoid fever,
dysentery and similar diseases, to ascertain whence the patient
has come, to isolate him and to try to eradicate the cause and
source of infection. In certain cases he may find that by way
of precaution, the establishment of an infectious diseases
hospital in the zone of the lines of communication is advisable.
Such a hospital has been established, for instance, in Attigny
near Vouziers.
Within the zone of the lines of communication to which
the clearing hospitals—which are in charge of a " Director"
—form the link of transition, there is first of all a Lines of
Communication Hospital Supply Depot which replenishes the
stores of the hospital units and organisations, both at the front
and on the lines of communication, the Lines of Communication
Hospital, with which we have already become acquainted, the
sections for non-dangerous cases of disease, and for con-
valescents—from which the patients can frequently be sent
back to the front after so short a time that their transport to
the home country would be needless—the infectious diseases
hospital, the ambulance trains—hospitals on wheels—and
any incidental trains for the transport of wounded. I have
already acquainted the reader with such hospital organisa-
tions at intermediate base stations, where we have seen
doctors, nurses and medical service men go from carriage to
carriage of the ambulance train to examine the patients and
pick out those who cannot bear further transport.
In the home country the arriving wounded are sent to
home base hospitals—either ordinary hospitals or private
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