staff (Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Scharlieb, and myself). Four started, but one
left us early in the proceedings. We have had six nurses, five
dressers, one wardmaster, one washerman, and eighteen orderlies, or
thirty-two in all, who actually came in contact with the sick. Out
of the six nurses, one has died and three others have had enteric.
Of the five dressers, two have had severe enteric. The wardmaster
has spent a fortnight in bed with veldt sores. The washerman has
enteric. Of the eighteen orderlies, one is dead, and eight others
are down with enteric. So that out of a total of thirty-four we
have had seventeen severe casualties--fifty per cent.--in nine
weeks. Two are dead, and the rest incapacitated for the campaign,
since a man whose heart has been cooked by a temperature over 103
degrees is not likely to do hard work for another three months. If
the war lasts nine more weeks, it will be interesting to see how
many are left of the original personnel. When the scouts and the
Lancers and the other picturesque people ride in procession through
London, have a thought for the sallow orderly, who has also given
of his best for his country. He is not a fancy man--you do not find
them in enteric wards--but for solid work and quiet courage you
will not beat him in all that gallant army.'

Dr. Conan Doyle has told the story of the hospital orderly, but who
shall tell the story of the doctor and the hospital nurse. In many cases
they have laid down their lives for the men, and all have worked with a
devotion that has seemed well-nigh super-human. But a medical staff
sufficient for two army corps was altogether insufficient to supply the
needs of an army of 200,000 and fight an epidemic of terrible severity.
They did their best. Some person the country will blame, but to these
who so nobly worked and endured the country will say, 'Well done!'

=Terrible Incidents during the Epidemic.=

Tales of horror crowd upon one; stories of men in delirium, wandering
about the camp at night; stories of living men in the agonies of
disease, with dead men lying on either side; stories of men themselves
hardly able to crawl about, turning out of bed to nurse their comrades
because there was no one else to do it.

'Why do you let 'em die?' asked a young soldier by way of a grim joke,
pointing to two dead soldiers close to him, while he himself was