kintosh layer was carefully avoided. In some instances,
antiseptic powders were employed, but they did not find much favour, and
because they tended to favour slipping of the dressing, and to prevent
the adhesion of the gauze dressing to the wound, they were certainly not
desirable when there was any necessity for the patient to travel. In the
absence of reliable water the use of antiseptic lotions was obligatory,
and such is likely to be the case in most campaigns; in the present one,
filtration of the thick muddy water was impossible, without a
considerable expenditure of time, which could only be obtained when the
hospitals were fairly stationary. I very much preferred carbolic acid
lotions.

The wound having been once cleansed, or rather the surroundings of the
wound, the drier the surface was kept the better; hence a too heavy or
impervious dressing was not satisfactory; in point of fact, I think some
of the slighter wounds in which all the dressings slipped off, and in
which there was less consequent chance of the dressing being moistened
with the sweat of the patient, did as well as any.

I do not think the bicyanide gauze, absorbent wool, and common open-wove
bandages, together with a good supply of nail brushes, soap, and
carbolic acid for the primary disinfection of the skin and the external
wound, are to be greatly bettered at the present day as materials for
the first permanent dressing of cases in the field. The wound itself
should be carefully shielded during the preliminary cleansing of the
skin by a firmly applied antiseptic pad, and then the dressing applied
as above described. The one desirable improvement is some mode of
ensuring the dressing being kept in good position, and for this some
form of adhesive covering for the gauze and wool should be devised. When
the atmosphere is such as to allow of rapid drying, thin moistened
book-muslin bandages would be preferable to the plain open-wove ones.
The one period of danger is that of transport, and when that is over,
the dressing in Stationary or Base hospitals should give no trouble.

As a rule the wounds themselves need no interference, but in some
instances either the exit or entrance wounds may be in undesirable
positions for purposes of asepsis, when a large opening may seem safer
closed and actually sealed. I saw this method tried in a few cases, but
without much success. It is one which might be of much use in Base
hospitals if the patients were