they are
now run with remarkable efficiency. No millionaire could receive better
care when wounded or ill than do John Bull's naval officers and seamen.

Sir James Porter, the head of this service, whose pen sends a train to
all parts of England and Scotland, has a loyal staff, which devotes
remarkable zeal to their share of the work. They take pride in making a
time-record in disembarkation and entraining of patients. Naval surgeons
at each railroad station watch the work of the stretcher-bearers to be
sure that every cot has the gentlest possible handling when being
carried from the train to the ambulance which is to take the patient to
the local hospital.

The "stepping" of the stretcher-bearers seems a trifling thing, but it
is surprising to note the attention given to this point in the first
days of the war. Dr. A. V. Elder, staff surgeon of the Royal Naval
Volunteer Reserve and the right bower of Sir James Porter, practised for
weeks the carrying of patients, getting into cots to ascertain the most
comfortable step for the wounded. Prizes were even given to the men who
carried a pail of water on a cot and reached a fixed point with the most
liquid in the receptacle. By this means the best method of "stepping off"
was evolved. There are hundreds of these stretcher-bearers--volunteers
without compensation--who now perform the task so well that it attracts
even the attention of the casual observer. The cot-bearers are doing
their "bit"; they get to the railroad stations at all times to meet the
ambulance trains, and often have to wait hours and give up their usual
business.

It may also be interesting to some that in those August days the Naval
Ambulance trains were not much more than a series of box-cars. The
present cot--an ingenious arrangement by naval surgeons--was used in the
naval hospitals and aboard the warships. But the fixtures on the train
for carrying this cot were far from perfection. The patient was tossed
about by the movement of the train, and it was realised that in the
event of hundreds of patients being carried something would have to be
discovered to steady the beds. Dr. Elder invented a clip-spring to be
attached to the cot and the side of the coach. It held the bed, and had
sufficient "give" to make it steady. In lieu of the box-cars, there are
now coaches of the American type, with windows and great sliding doors
which permit of easy ingress or egress.

The railroad officials have listene