ken soldier
will be "seen through" back into civil life. I was honestly surprised
that he no longer depended on voluntary gifts to a charitable society
for a bandage when he lay wounded or for a nurse if sickness overtook
him. The marvellous system of the medical intelligence department,
even the separate medical secret service, worked so efficiently that
in spite of the awful conditions the health of the men in the line was
twice as good as that when at home in civil life. Even disease
approaching from the enemy's side was "spied," and as far as possible
forestalled. All sanitary arrangements, all water supplies, and all
public health matters from the North Sea to the Swiss border were
handled by regular army officers. For the first time in history the
medicals were considered so intimate a part of the fighting force that
doctors held the same rank as executive officers. I was a major--no
longer a surgeon major or just a sanitary official. Those in command
were even trusted in advance with information as to what would likely
be required of them on any part of the front by some manoeuvre or
attack, though I do not think that even the general of the R.A.M.C.
was admitted to the council of war.

The chart-room of the G.H.Q. was another revelation. The walls from
ceiling to floor were occupied with the usual large-scale maps, with
flags on pins; while long, weird, crooked lines of all colours made
elaborate tracings over the charts, like those used in hospitals.
These flags and lines indicated the surgical and medical front, where
battles with typhoid, trench feet, and wounds were being waged by the
immense army of workers under General Sloggett's direction.
Laboratories in motor cars, special surgeons and ambulances were
racing here and there, new hospitals for emergencies were being pushed
in different directions, so that though within range of the enemies'
guns, men wounded in the chest or abdomen could be treated in time to
give them a chance for their lives. Typhoid recurring in any section
of the line might mean the reprimand of the medical officer there;
trench feet became a misdemeanour, so excellent were the precautions
devised and carried out by the N.C.O.'s.

I ventured at table to say quite truthfully that I, a surgeon from a
base hospital, where we saw endless Red Cross motor ambulances, and
received so many kindnesses in supplies, and especially luxuries for
our wounded from the Red Cross officials, had bee