A common ailment of U. S. and British soldiers during World War I was trench mouth, or Vincent's angina. No laughing matter, trench mouth is a painful, sometimes fatal disease, spread by relatives of the syphilis spirochete, which first invade the gums, may later migrate to tonsils, salivary glands and lungs. Trench mouth is most prevalent in summertime when campers use common utensils and cups. To kill the trench mouth spirochete, doctors usually swab their patients' swollen gums with hydrogen peroxide, silver salts or arsphenamine, prescribe mouthwashes of sodium perborate. But such treatment...
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