ugh Verdun was at its height, no wounded were seen in Paris and the
hospitals in fact were almost empty at the time. And as the Parisians
did not see any evidence of great losses through the presence of
wounded, it was quite natural to conclude that there could not be many
wounded. If not why worry, for the newspapers were full of the
tremendous casualties inflicted on the enemy? The French army must be
very good to be able to hold the German back like that, must it not?
So Paris was optimistic and the wounded went elsewhere to the country
where it was said the air was much better than in a large city like
Paris.

The French Canadian hospital, however, was not going to be done out of
the work that they had come so far to do, and demanded patients. As
the hospital was situated in the suburbs (where the air was presumably
good) permission was granted and it was filled with wounded from
Verdun on the following day.

Though not fully completed when I saw it, the hospital was in running
order. It consisted of a series of wooden huts arranged in the area
behind the grand stand, and had just enough shade trees around to
shelter the huts partially from the sun. It was always a marvel to me
to see soldiers recovering from what have always been considered to be
fatal wounds. I saw one man that day at St. Cloud who had been shot
through the centre of the forehead two days before at Verdun, the
bullet coming out of the top of his head, and leaving the brain
exposed. The man was sitting up in bed reading and when the wet
dressing was raised by the surgeon one could see the brain pulsating.

Of the meetings of the War Allies' Sanitary Commission there is little
to be said because they were of a technical nature, and chiefly of
interest to scientists. The first meeting was held on March the 15th
and one was held thereafter every afternoon for the next three weeks,
with the exception of Sundays. About thirty-five delegates were
present altogether, representing the civilian, naval and military
services of Russia, Italy, Serbia, France, Belgium and Great Britain.

At each session some subject on sanitation was discussed according to
a program decided upon the previous day. Some countries had already
had experiences with certain epidemics, which were quite unknown as
yet to the other allied countries; in such a case the experience
gained by one country in devising ways and means of stamping out an
epidemic would be of great interest a