s
of interest, act as advisers, and hand on to other units the special
information or "stunts" that have been worked out or discovered at
home or in the field. The consulting surgeons are usually to be found
during a battle operating where there is the greatest need of skilled
surgery.

Besides the sanitary officer of each division there is a sanitary
officer for each army, and a chief sanitary officer for the whole
expeditionary force. These are all in touch with the sanitary adviser
at the base and the authorities in England. Since, under war
conditions, new developments are always taking place in this work, the
knowledge gained of practical value filters through to the army by
these channels as well as through the scientific journals.

Each army is provided in the field with one or more "advanced depots
of medical stores" which keep on hand and give out the drugs and
medical materials demanded by the various hospitals and medical units.
If, for example, a field ambulance wants a lot of iodine, absorbent
cotton, etc., the officer commanding sends an ambulance with an indent
signed by himself, and the officer in charge of the depot hands over
the material required.

There are other branches of the service, like the gas schools and
inland water service, which, though strictly not medical, are closely
akin to it.

It would be of little avail to speak of all the minute detail, of
which there is a tremendous amount in each and every one of these
offices and sections of the medical service. The methods of filing
correspondence and records alone is wonderful when one thinks of the
conditions and number of men involved, and comparatively few mistakes
are made. This appears the more remarkable when one has had numerous
experiences with the mistakes made in the offices in England where one
would think the systems would have been systematized long ago.

The medical service of the British Army in France is a marvel of
efficiency and one that the nation can well afford to be proud of.

CHAPTER X.

KEEPING THE BRITISH SOLDIER FIT.

The history of war has always been a history of epidemics. The fact
that in an army men are crowded together makes it easy for all
communicable diseases, once introduced, to spread with great rapidity.
And because soldiers are always associated with the civilian
population, it means that such diseases are readily communicated from
the army to the civilians, and from the civilians to th