Two types of nephritis were encountered abroad in soldiers during the recent war. Chronic nephritis was a rare disease and can be dismissed without further discussion, as obviously it was to be excluded by a thorough routine physical examination of all recruits before enlistment. Acute nephritis was more common and a greater problem from the points of view of medical administration as a whole, and individual care of patients in particular.
Acute nephritis was not important in warfare until the present time with the exception of the Civil War, when there were approximately 14,000 cases. It was not prevalent in the Franco-Prussian War, the Chino-Japanese War, the Soudan War, the Spanish-American War, or in the South African War. After 1915, however, it appeared among British, French, Austrian and German troops. No figures have been published as to the frequency of the disease in the American Expeditionary Forces. Among the British