hospital for two months with rheumatic fever brought on by exposure.
When a man "reported sick" he was marched at about nine o'clock in the morning to the medical inspection room of his regiment, and after waiting about in all weathers for an indefinite time was seen by a medical officer. If considered a case for admission he was given an aperient, whether he wanted it or not, in the shape of half-a-pint of vile-tasting liquid known as " black-strap." He was next marched off to hospital, which might be anything up to a mile or more away, and there he was interviewed by another doctor before being "admitted" to hospital. Next he was told off to a ward, where he might hope to arrive about mid-day, after having been on the move for some three or four hours. In the afternoon he would put on his hospital clothing, give his own into store, and lie down to await the visit of the medical officer in charge of the ward on the following morning. He was then again examined, treatment was prescribed, and if all went well he received it during the afternoon, or some thirty hours after he first set out from his barrack-room.
Accidents and other special cases would be dealt with more or less immediately, but ordinary medical cases dawdled on in the manner I have described, greatly to the discomfort of the patient and sometimes at the risk of his life. There was no nursing service, at any rate in the hospitals I had the misfortune to visit. Nursing and dressing were the duty of the "orderly" of the ward, and this individual was apt to regulate the amount of attention he gave to his patients by the amount of tips they gave to him.
Permission to be out of barracks after "watch-setting" —half-past nine at night—was sparingly granted, and all night passes were practically never given. The "roll" was called at watch-setting, when every man not on leave had to answer his name, and to make sure that none went out afterwards one and sometimes two "check" roll-calls were made by the orderly sergeant-major at uncertain hours during the night. Each orderly-sergeant handed in at watch-setting a statement showing the number of men
