Old soldiers never die

Cleanliness is very hard to keep by every army. In the past when little was known about hygiene, cleanliness was achieved thanks to field laundries with a host of washerwomen. The largest insurmountable plague of the army was lice infestation. Napoleon’s defeat in Russian was caused not only by the famous Russian winter but also by lice infestation. Research carried out by scientists from Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille in one of the mass graves of Napoleonic soldiers in Vilnius confirmed the presence not only of lice but also of micro-organisms carried by lice and causing such terminal illnesses in people as trench fever and typhus. It was these diseases that decimated the soldiers of Napoleonic army. Mobile laundries with evaporators in which uniforms were treated with hot steam and with boilers in which underwear was boiled marked great progress in protecting armies from epidemics. At that time soldiers had to take baths or showers with a large amount of yellow soap. Places where soldiers could get rid of lice called “Sanierungsanstalt” in German were even presented on propaganda postcards as an outstanding achievement of hygiene and technology. But that happened at the beginning of the 20th century. Military service in colourful and picturesque uniforms in the 18th and 19th century is hard for us to imagine also for hygienic and epidemiological reasons.