Another disease soldiers caught during World War 1 is dysentery. Dysentery is an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhoea, caused by poor water supply, water cleanliness and no proper toilets for the soldiers to use. Dirty drinking water caused a lot of problems during World War 1, mainly because it contains all sorts of illnesses and diseases, which once you have in your system, cause you to get ill. Cholera was cause by dirty water, causing sickness, diarrhoea and even death it if was left untreated for long enough. Trench mouth was also common during World War 1. This is where you get an infection of the mouth, caused by poor oral hygiene and lack of important vitamins, due to a poor diet, smoking, tooth or mouth infections and stress.
Also, the mud was very thick that men disappeared into it and were never seen again, Corpses lay all around the battlefield and this encouraged rats and lice which caused diseases. The mud and the cold caused many soldiers to suffer from trench foot. The generals of each side lacked sense and kept on adding more of the same, more men, more artillery and machine guns, this
They had to use their tins and duck behind the sheds in the trenches. Not only was this incredibly unhygienic and caused many diseases among the soldiers, but they were also dodging bullets. The enemy would shot them as they went to the toilet and because they were pre-occupied they could not defend themselves. The toilets were a grim place to be, cans of overflowing sewage, undetectable bullets and often the bodies of men who had died in the act. Another terrible problem was the rats.
Fear and anguish brought out some of the worst qualities in the villagers causing them to turn against one another creating anger, conflict and damage unto one another. In turn these actions fueled by superstition, hysteria and ignorance could become just as fatal as the plague itself. The bubonic plague attacks many individuals in the village as it delivers continuous grief and loss to the whole town. Brooks structures her novel as a non-linear timeline as it jumps backwards and forwards starting after the events of the plague giving hints of what has caused the change in the community. Undoubtedly, the plague causes the disintegration of families in the town.
Death was constant and not unusual for soldiers. Many soldiers didn’t even survive the first day. Besides this, many of the trenches were infested with rats, and soldiers feared them. Rats tended to feed on human corpses, spread infections and contaminate food. Rats weren’t the only problem concerning infection.
Also, they would dump their human waste into the water and make it even more contaminated so when the people of Jamestown would drink or use the water it would make them ill and even to the point that they died. Within a couple of years they also faced drought which many people died because of starvation. The colony went to desperate measures by forcing the Indians to trade their grain, the Indians didn’t give up easy though as it says in the document ‘some harshe (harsh) and cruwell (cruel ) dealinge (dealings)by cutting of towe (two) of the salvages (Indians) heads and other extremities.” Another reason why the colonist died in the colony of early Jamestown was because of the skills they had. When the first ship arrived in Jamestown they brought over a total of 110 males in 1607. 47 of the men were gentlemen, back then, a gentlemen was a person of wealth who was not used to working with his hands.
The rooms where the meat would stay had leaky roofs where water dripped onto the meat. The rooms would be dark, rats would be all around the meat, and when the workers would grab the meat they sometimes would sweep rat dung off the meat. The workmen would deal with this by putting poisoned bread neat the meat so the rats would eat it and die. But either way, these rooms wouldn’t become any cleaner by putting meat, dead rats, and poisoned bread together. Within only one year of the book being published, tons of copies were sold.
Between the dirt gathering with the sewage and the bacteria along with the dirty outhouses lead to the spread of diseases and eventually to the demise of some inhabitants. The overall conditions of the tenements waifs and children were near unlivable and were plagued by disease and crime. It
In summer the trench would be exposed to the hot sun and in winter to pouring rain and snow. The rain filled up the trench and water seeped in through the sides leaving the troops up to their knees in thick, stinking mud that made any movement difficult. There was no sanitation and rats were a problem in the trenches. Diseases were bad such as dysentery and trench foot. There would be no relief for front line troops for weeks on end.
‘Coughing like hags’ the conditions was not great in the trenches in World War 1, it was full of diseases and the weather conditions would make fighting a great deal harder. ‘We cursed through sludge’ Owen must have written this at a time when the weather was raining as the trenches filled up with mud and water up to the soldiers knees making it harder to walk. ‘GAS! Gas! Boys!