a battle fiercer and more disastrous to
our men than any other in this Boer campaign. Enteric fever had been
dogging the steps of our army all the way from Cronje's camp, and it
overtook it in full force in Bloemfontein. Very soon the hospitals were
full--crowded--overcrowded. A state of things obtained which, whether it
be a scandal or not, will be a lasting source of regret to every
Englishman, and a dark stain upon the war.

So rapidly did the men fall that accommodation could not possibly be
found for them. They lay about anywhere. The space between the bed-cots
was full of groaning, struggling, dying humanity. In inches of mud and
slush they lay, breathing their lives out all unattended. The supply of
doctors, nurses, and orderlies was altogether inadequate. Tents and
medicines could not be got to the front, for the railway was required
for food supplies, and the army must be fed. It is too early to pass
judgment on the arrangements. We record a few facts, vouched for not
only by the papers from which we quote, but by scores of men who have
come from Bloemfontein, and with whom we have talked.

It is in the remembrance of all that Mr. Burdett-Coutts wrote an article
in the _Times_, and afterwards delivered a speech in the House of
Commons, in both of which he told of the terrible sufferings of our men,
and severely criticised the hospital arrangements. The men returning
from the front, while they one and all declare that everything was done
by the hospital authorities which it was possible for those on the spot
to do, yet mournfully admit that the terrible accounts are not
exaggerated.

=Dr. Conan Doyle's Testimony.=

The _Daily Telegraph_ published the number of deaths from disease at
Bloemfontein during the months of April, May, and the first part of
June. They reach the awful total of 949. Dr. Conan Doyle, in a recent
letter published in the _British Medical Journal_, says:--

'I know of no instance of such an epidemic in modern warfare. I
have not had access to any official figures, but I believe that in
one month there were from 10,000 to 12,000 men down with this, the
most debilitating of all diseases. I know that in one month 600 men
were laid in the Bloemfontein cemetery. A single day in this one
town saw 40 deaths.'

He speaks in the highest terms of the conduct of the sick soldiers.

'They are uniformly patient, docile, and cheerful, with an
inextinguishab