obtaining some necessary supplies. All these considerations show the necessity for military experience, as well as for knowledge of surgical duty, on the part of those on whom the duty devolves of making such arrangements.

As before mentioned, such directions as are given concerning the positions of the surgical posts ordered to be established for the relief of the wounded must only be regarded, like many other regulated military dispositions, as being of the nature of general principles to be adapted to the special circumstances of each particular occasion. They are liable to be modified in practice according to the varying nature and extent of the military operations, the features of the terrain, the personnel and matériel at disposal, and other such matters. The principal medical officer of the division to which the field hospital is attached, who is charged with the responsibility, or his administrative representatives when they are vested with the necessary authority, must decide on all such arrangements.

The sketch on page 564 will serve to illustrate the number and distribution of the help-stations allotted by regulation to an army in the field, which have just been described.

6. Field ambulance train establishments.-During the time. that a battle is in progress, and while some of the wounded are being attended to at the dressing-stations to which they have been carried, a constant conveyance of other wounded from the field is necessary. Those also who have been dressed must be taken in succession to the field hospitals. A constant circulation of transport is required all the time an action lasts, and so long as any wounded men require to be carried away. Subsequently the wounded who have been treated in the field hospitals, and who admit of removal, will have to be taken to the stationary hospitals on the lines of communication, and from these again, in due course, to the general hospital at the base of operations. These operations lead to the necessity for certain ambulance train establishments, consisting either of wheeled or pack conveyances conducted on ordinary roads, or of carriage conveyances on railroads. By whatever means the wounded are being moved, they require a certain amount of supervision and care during their removal; so that, for the time being, large ambulance trains, when they are conveying wounded, may be regarded as moving hospitals. The constitution of the field ambulance train supplied by the Army Service Corps. has been shown when describing the composition of the bearer company. The vehicles composing this train are not intended to pass beyond the line of the field hospitals. As the essential purpose of all ambulance trains is the systematic and careful removal of the wounded from station to station, and as many of these men must be in a very critical condition, requiring skilled

care and attention while undergoing transport, it follows that such trains must not only comprehend transport vehicles with their drivers, but also a certain staff for affording surgical assistance. This help is given, so far as the field ambulance train with a bearer company is concerned, by the men of the Medical Staff

Sketch of Surgical Establishments allotted to an Army Corps of 35,087 troops, together with a Cavalry Division of 6700 troops, by Field Regulations of 1893.

Corps who form part of the establishment of the company. Either a corporal or a private of the corps accompanies each ambulance waggon. In the case of a convoy of wounded moving from a hospital on the line of communications by road, the necessary surgical supervision and help have to be provided by the medical officer in charge of the hospital from which the sick are removed.

The transport conveyances will be obtained on requisition from the Army Service Corps, but it is not provided that they shall be special ambulance waggons. Country vehicles may be employed for this service.

7. Railway ambulance train establishments. When many wounded or sick soldiers are transported by railway, an establishment of surgeons and attendants, in proportion to the number entrained, must accompany them to minister to their wants in the carriages on the way and during halts at the provision-stations. What this establishment is to be, must vary according to the distance of the railway journey, arrangement of halting-stations, the kinds of carriages employed, the means of communication between them, and other circumstances. With the exception of particular instances in which specially constructed trains and well-organised establishments were engaged in the removal of wounded during the great civil war in the United States and the Franco-German war of 1870-71, the transport of wounded by railway has hitherto been usually attended with much suffering to them, and often with aggravation of their injuries. This subject has been well studied on the Continent of Europe, and many experimental trials have been made to determine the most appropriate forms of carriages and the best organisation for railway ambulance service. It will be again referred to in the chapter on Transport. I am not aware that any regulations have been issued in England regarding the management of railway hospital trains in time of war, although special and minute instructions are given in the Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Army on the entraining and detraining of troops of all arms of the service, including artillery, cavalry, and matériel, when moving by railway.

8. Hospital ships. These vessels are of great importance as regards the comfort and welfare of sick and wounded troops, and they are always much needed when the enemy to be encountered is one at a considerable distance from our own shores. Hospital ships are arranged to accommodate both disabled officers and men : however comfortably officers may be provided for in passenger or hired vessels, they cannot be so well cared for, when requiring surgical treatment, as when they are placed in ships which are regularly provided with all the essentials of a hospital.

Hospital ships are especially useful for separating the sick from the healthy on board the transports at the first place of rendezvous, if this be ordered to take place while the force is on its way to the scene of military operations; for the reception of those who are too sick to land on the arrival of the force at its place of destination, if this be a hostile country; for the reception of casualties which may occur in effecting the landing itself; and for the periodical conveyance of the sick and wounded when a

sea intervenes between the field hospitals and the general hospital at the base of the military operations. They are also most desirable for the transport of wounded invalids who are incapacitated for further service in the field, and who are therefore ordered to be sent to England, either for treatment or for discharge from the army. A hospital ship may also be used with advantage as a stationary hospital when climatic or other reasons render treatment in a hospital on shore near the sea-coast objectionable, as was the case during the Ashanti war. It then assumes the characters of the principal general hospital at the base of operations, and it is now directed in the regulations for medical services that hospital ships may be employed not only to supplement, but also to act in lieu of, general hospitals on shore at the seaboard base of operations in time of war. When the invasion of the Crimea was undertaken, cholera was prevailing among the troops, bob during the passage from Varna to the place of rendezvous of the feet at Bala Bay, and from the latter to Kalamita Bay, were the army landed; and, on this account, properly fitted and equipped hospital ships would have been an invaluable resource. Noga Seweren accompanied the expedition. Ordinary transports were arterwards used for hospital purposes, as well as for conveying Pie woerded from the Crimea to the principal general hospital at Scoter, but they were extremely ill-suited to the purpose. they were generally not sufficiently high between decks, not provided with the movessary fittings for the reception of wounded mon nor eoan, badly ventilated, and without proper attendants. the experience which was then gained has led to many improvemours in this regard. The regulations now order that hospital ships are to be provided on all occasions when an army is about to take the Bold. By the Army Medical Regulations of 1890, each division of an army corps is to have a hospital ship, with rosam power, capable of making up 200 beds, or, in an emergency, wap body, when such a vessel is considered necessary; and the hospital ship is to have a small steam-transport attached to it as a atorships and carrying a supply of 400 canvas cots, available for being fitted into transports at the base of operations when additional hospital accommodation is required.

In the Chinese war of 1860 two hospital steamships were de quatched from England fully equipped; 12 but since that date great improvements have been made in their construction and The most perfect and the most successful example harbor to attorded of a hospital ship was the Victor Emanuel, which was arranged and fitted, under the directions of Directortromeral Sir William Muir, for service on the west coast of Abiss during the Ashanti war of 1873-74, and for transportng the wounded from that station to England. The organisation

and arrangements of this hospital ship scarcely admitted of any improvement.

The military arrangements in hospital ships include the provision of the necessary number of surgeons, hospital attendants, dispensers of medicines, and medical and surgical appliances-in short, a complete hospital establishment-for the proper treatment and nursing of the patients intended to be accommodated in them. The Admiralty undertakes everything connected with the conveyance of the sick, including fittings and bedding, and also for victualling them; and is therefore responsible for providing food, medical comforts, mess utensils, and cooks for them. Special accommodation is provided in these ships for the reception and treatment of sick and wounded officers.

Auxiliary hospital ships. The regulations provide that, in addition to the hospital ships, there shall be one or more fast steam-vessels, each making up sixty beds, to be employed for taking the worst cases from the hospital ships to England or elsewhere. There are also to be despatch-vessels fitted with canvas cots, for taking less severe cases to any available packet station, and transferring them to mail packets which are on their way to England. Special arrangements will be made with the mail packets for carrying small numbers of invalids as passengers.

9. Permanent hospitals at home. A description of the estabblishments for permanent hospitals at home will be found in the Army Medical Regulations. The wounded, as they arrive in England, may, if sufficiently recovered, be sent to the depôts of their regiments, but the majority will be sent to the invaliding hospitals at Netley and Woolwich. In case their accommodation should not suffice for all the invalids sent home, some of the larger station hospitals at Aldershot or elsewhere would be arranged for receiving them.

National Aid Societies. In each of the leading countries of Europe, Great Britain excepted, there exists, in systematised official relation with the War Ministry, a National Society, mainly composed of civilians, for aiding the sick and wounded soldiers of the country in time of war. These societies are so organised as to be capable of affording very great assistance in hospitalisation and transport duties, as regards both personnel and materials, to the Government of their respective countries whenever they become engaged in war. The action of the National Aid Societies is voluntary, but is guided and restrained by regulations approved by the War Ministries, so that their members may work in harmony with the regular services for the welfare of their sick and wounded countrymen. In such countries they as much form part of the army medical establishments for meeting the exigencies of war, as the volunteer combatant forces in England do with regard