Item 01: Eric Susman war diary, 1 January 1915-4 April 1916 - Page 26
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[Page 26]
Saturday 2 January 1915
To-day I had to submit to what in my ordinary life, I would have considered a very serious social stigma in the shape of having my wearing apparel sterilised and fumigated. But in the military, that is all in the day's work; and although you may personally take offence, you say nothing because you are only aware that it is done, in the long run, for your own comfort and your own advantage.
This evening something very serious occurred. The men were served with a ration of what was apparently bad tripe. Soon after tea, several were badly affected with ptomaine poisoning, and it was not long before the hospital was full of prostrated patients. The medical officers seemed to take it all very lightly; and had they continued to treat the sufferers in the callous manner which they began, the men might have made it very unpleasant for them.