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Background information
Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. 1 Describe key features. One key feature of trench foot is that it was caused by constant exposure to waterlogged trenches in bad conditions. This led to further diseases like gangrene, which can lead to amputations. A second key feature of trench foot is that it was attempted to be prevented by the constant change in socks and placing down duckboards and drains to prevent the waterlogging which caused it in the first place. |
2a Utility
Source A is partially useful for an enquiry into the treatment of trench foot. For example, it shows the effects and symptoms of trench foot, which will later lead to gangrene, and then amputations. Furthermore, the source is useful because it is a photograph and is a snapshot in time, which can allow further investigation into a certain period of time and the current treatments (1917).
However, its utility is extremely limited for an enquiry into the types of treatment used like whale oil and the changing of socks, and still didn’t tell us the later effects and the fact that it needs to be amputated, which we need to use our own knowledge to understand. In addition, the fact that it is only a snapshot in time, mean that it does not allow us to get a complete view of all of the war trench foot history/developments in treatments. We also do not know where this image has come from so we need to use our own knowledge to find what battle this was from and to know if this photo is truly representative of the war.