Medical or history buffs, what does this say ?

[SirVixofVixHall]

I can’t work it out. My cousin was hospitalised during WW1, he was in for 43 days and then again for a fortnight, then sent back where he was captured, and died of pulmonary tb in a POW camp just as the war was about to end. Terribly sad as he was just a teenager.
This is the record of him being in hospital, but I can’t work out what is written under “disease”. I’ve enlarged and cropped it here, but still no clue !

Sorry it is on its side !

If you write to Army records, they may have a transcribed version which will be easier to read. I've had to do that with my Granddads records as I couldn't make out one of the ships names.

It looks like it says ‘stammer, tic’ which might mean war neurosis?

Hammer toe?
Foot conditions were a problem for soldiers because of the need for army boots and lots of marching. Flat feet was a reason for exclusion from service. Many people had bunions and hammer toes because shoes were worn that did not fit properly, especially in poorer people, hand me downs for children for example.

I thought it looked like Ammonia something. WW1 did use mustard gas.

I would say ammonia. I also agree with PP, see if you can get a transcript.

Actually I think it might mention hammer toe on his initial medical report, which would make that more likely. I’ll go back and double check. He was nine stone four with a 33 inch chest. Poor bloke. His younger brother also signed up on turning 18, thankfully he was put on reserve but never called as the war ended. He was only six and a half stone, just over five foot, still growing I imagine. Tiny. At least he survived.
I’ll go and check the hammer toe and come back to report.

So yes, genius women. It says left Hammer toe on his initial medical, under deformities and diseases. I don’t know what a hammer toe is, will go and google. Thank you everyone.
Any idea why that would have meant such a long stay in hospital ?

What a sad story OP. Poor lad.

It does look like "hammer toe" but I'd read the PPs mentioning that before I looked at the document so I might have been biased. The letter at the end of hammer (if that's what it is) looks like one of those old-fashioned R's where it goes down at the end - I sure there's a technical term for it but I don't know what it is!

Oh sorry, x-post OP. Did he have any other diagnoses?

Well I can see he died of tb, in german POW camp, in what is now Poland, and was then Upper Silesia. The war had almost ended. He was clever and talented, and 19. Heartbreaking. His body was moved to a Commonwealth cemetery so at least he has a headstone.

I'm glad he has a headstone at least SirVix.

Presumably he developed TB in the camp rather than having it already when he was in hospital? A lot of men developed TB in the camps didn't they? My grandfather did although that was WW2. Such a horrible waste.

It's so good that you have found out so much of his story though. I knew my grandpa, as he was lucky enough to make it home, and we've got his diaries as well from when he was in the navy. It's so important to keep their stories alive.

Possibly in the camp, yes. Although his mother died very young after having three babies very close together, she looks peachy with health pre babies and then a few years later she was very thin and frail looking, I did wonder about tb when I saw the photograph.
So possibly he had a dormant infection that flared up with the huge stress of being in the camp, or possibly he caught it in the camp. I’m going to order his mother’s death certificate.
How lovely that you had your Grandpa, and that you have his diaries.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when Pasteur identified the bacillus that causes TB, population studies showed that a very high proportion of the population had ‘markers’ for TB. Something like 80/90%. TB is a strange disease that can be dormant and cause no symptoms for years, but can become ‘active’ when the immune system is challenged by other acute illness or malnutrition for example. So people may have had their initial contact with the disease in childhood but not succumb to active TB until later in life. The commonest cause of death in young adults was TB until the 1950’s! The disease was rife in undernourished people in crowded and poor living conditions, so prison camps were a breeding ground for communicable diseases, including TB.