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THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.
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THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Mr. Ballance. The site of the hospital-a narrow strip of ground under a high kopje-is not an ideal one, necessitating as it does crossing the railway main line to reach the convalescent and staff camps and cramping the huts and THE military situation is unchanged. Ex-President Kruger marquees rather closely together. The beds in some of the ’has left for Europe and marauding bands of Boers still hold huts and tortoise tents appeared to me to be somewhat too near each other. Convalescent officers mess with the the field. It may be remembered that Mr. T. W. Edmunds, honorary FIG. 1. secretary of the Durban Government hospitals, some time ago wrote a long and strongly condemnatory letter to a contemporary in which he charged a number of army medical officers with incompetency, and medical orderlies with brutality, and alleged a criminal lack of invalid accessories. He also stated that if the Commission were honestly desirous of ,getting at the truth evidence enough would be forthcoming It would hardly be to convince the most seepical. believed that when called as a witness and confronted before the Royal Commission with these allegations he was unable to substantiate one of them, but such, according to the Cape Argqis of Sept. 21st, was the fact. He had to confess that he had no personal knowledge and was going entirely on hearsay evidence. It is needless to add that he had to withdraw all he had said. Lord Justice Romer had not, however, done with him, but called his attention to the statement regarding the honest desire of the Commission to .get at the truth. He withdrew this also. As the witness could give no information the President said there was no use in hearing unsubstantiated general statements. In the report which we gave in our last issue (p. 1167) of the very interesting address of Professor Chiene, outlining his experiences as a consulting surgeon in South Africa, which he delivered in opening the winter session of the class in surgery in the University of Edinburgh, we notice among other things that he touched upon the subject of enteric fever and its causation. Speaking of what he had heard of the serious illness of comrades and friends attacked with this fever or suffering from dysentery Professor Chiene said :’’ Norval’s Pont had been an important Imperial Yeommry Hospital. General view of ite at Deelfontein. camping ground since Oct. lst and was covered with dried enteric and dysenteric dejecta. Dust-storms drove the poison staff. I think it is a pity that this practice has into every nook and cranny of tents and huts. From the hospital been adopted, as it is an objectionable one from many points very first every precaution had been taken, but it was no of view ; however, it seems ungracious to pick out slight - question of water or milk. It was one of dust and flies." defects in this splendid institution. At De Aar and Naauwport I paid brief visits to the hos. pitals-No. 3 Stationary Hospital at De Aar. under Major A TRIP FROM CAPE TOWN TO KROONSTADT. J. W. Cockerill, R.A.M.C., 290 beds; and the section of (FROM OUR TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.) FiG. 2. I havejust had a very pleasant and interesting trip in No. 5 Ambulance Train which enabled me to pay flying visits to all the larger military hospitals on the lines of communication between Cape Town and Kroonstadt-a distance of upwards of 800 miles. The train ran up to Kroonstadt with a large quantity of Red Cross, medical, and " Field Force Fund" stores for distribution at various stations, " loaded "i.e., took on 96 sick and wounded-at Kroonstadt, and then ran back to Norval’s Pont to unload. Leaving Cape Town in the evening we reached Deelfontein, 30 miles south of de Aar, on the next afternoon. The train stopped here for nearly an hour, right in the middle of the Imperial Yeomanry Base Hospital, which at this point bestrides the line, the wards and administration huts being on the west side and the staff and convalescent annexe tents on the east. Colonel A. T. Sloggett, R.A.M.C., commandant, and Mr. H. A. Ballance, chief of the surgical staff, very kindly showed me over their magnificent hospital, of which they are justly proud. The Yeomanry Hospital has been so frequently described and lauded in the medical press that I need not weary It must be ,your readers with a detailed description. remembered that it is a base hospital, that it has not had to contend with the transport difficulties of hospitals farther up country, and that its treasury is always overflowing. There were 997 cases under treatment (this includes the convalescents in the bell-tent annexe) at the time of my visit. The serious cases occupy the wards (partly huts and partly tortoise tents) on the western side of the line, while the convalescents, the staff, and the orderlies Imperial Yeomanry Hospital. Nearerview of a tent. live in bell-tents on the eastern side. Patients have not only every comfort, but every luxury imaginable and the No. 6 General Hospital at Naauwport, under Major Hassard, administration of the hospital had been reduced to an exact R.A.M.C., 150 beds. In both hospitals there were many science under the benevolent despotism of Colonel Sloggett, vacant beds. I was very favourably impressed with the the tactful and popular commandant. Mr. Fripp has gone neatness, cleanliness, and general efficiency of both. home and his place as surgeon-in-chief has been taken by At Norval’s Pont on the Orange river our train made a
THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.
THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Mr. Ballance. The site of the hospital-a narrow strip of ground under a high kopje-is not an ideal one, necessitating as it does crossing the railway main line to reach the convalescent and staff camps and cramping the huts and THE military situation is unchanged. Ex-President Kruger marquees rather closely together. The beds in some of the ’has left for Europe and marauding bands of Boers still hold huts and tortoise tents appeared to me to be somewhat too near each other. Convalescent officers mess with the the field. It may be remembered that Mr. T. W. Edmunds, honorary FIG. 1. secretary of the Durban Government hospitals, some time ago wrote a long and strongly condemnatory letter to a contemporary in which he charged a number of army medical officers with incompetency, and medical orderlies with brutality, and alleged a criminal lack of invalid accessories. He also stated that if the Commission were honestly desirous of ,getting at the truth evidence enough would be forthcoming It would hardly be to convince the most seepical. believed that when called as a witness and confronted before the Royal Commission with these allegations he was unable to substantiate one of them, but such, according to the Cape Argqis of Sept. 21st, was the fact. He had to confess that he had no personal knowledge and was going entirely on hearsay evidence. It is needless to add that he had to withdraw all he had said. Lord Justice Romer had not, however, done with him, but called his attention to the statement regarding the honest desire of the Commission to .get at the truth. He withdrew this also. As the witness could give no information the President said there was no use in hearing unsubstantiated general statements. In the report which we gave in our last issue (p. 1167) of the very interesting address of Professor Chiene, outlining his experiences as a consulting surgeon in South Africa, which he delivered in opening the winter session of the class in surgery in the University of Edinburgh, we notice among other things that he touched upon the subject of enteric fever and its causation. Speaking of what he had heard of the serious illness of comrades and friends attacked with this fever or suffering from dysentery Professor Chiene said :’’ Norval’s Pont had been an important Imperial Yeommry Hospital. General view of ite at Deelfontein. camping ground since Oct. lst and was covered with dried enteric and dysenteric dejecta. Dust-storms drove the poison staff. I think it is a pity that this practice has into every nook and cranny of tents and huts. From the hospital been adopted, as it is an objectionable one from many points very first every precaution had been taken, but it was no of view ; however, it seems ungracious to pick out slight - question of water or milk. It was one of dust and flies." defects in this splendid institution. At De Aar and Naauwport I paid brief visits to the hos. pitals-No. 3 Stationary Hospital at De Aar. under Major A TRIP FROM CAPE TOWN TO KROONSTADT. J. W. Cockerill, R.A.M.C., 290 beds; and the section of (FROM OUR TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.) FiG. 2. I havejust had a very pleasant and interesting trip in No. 5 Ambulance Train which enabled me to pay flying visits to all the larger military hospitals on the lines of communication between Cape Town and Kroonstadt-a distance of upwards of 800 miles. The train ran up to Kroonstadt with a large quantity of Red Cross, medical, and " Field Force Fund" stores for distribution at various stations, " loaded "i.e., took on 96 sick and wounded-at Kroonstadt, and then ran back to Norval’s Pont to unload. Leaving Cape Town in the evening we reached Deelfontein, 30 miles south of de Aar, on the next afternoon. The train stopped here for nearly an hour, right in the middle of the Imperial Yeomanry Base Hospital, which at this point bestrides the line, the wards and administration huts being on the west side and the staff and convalescent annexe tents on the east. Colonel A. T. Sloggett, R.A.M.C., commandant, and Mr. H. A. Ballance, chief of the surgical staff, very kindly showed me over their magnificent hospital, of which they are justly proud. The Yeomanry Hospital has been so frequently described and lauded in the medical press that I need not weary It must be ,your readers with a detailed description. remembered that it is a base hospital, that it has not had to contend with the transport difficulties of hospitals farther up country, and that its treasury is always overflowing. There were 997 cases under treatment (this includes the convalescents in the bell-tent annexe) at the time of my visit. The serious cases occupy the wards (partly huts and partly tortoise tents) on the western side of the line, while the convalescents, the staff, and the orderlies Imperial Yeomanry Hospital. Nearerview of a tent. live in bell-tents on the eastern side. Patients have not only every comfort, but every luxury imaginable and the No. 6 General Hospital at Naauwport, under Major Hassard, administration of the hospital had been reduced to an exact R.A.M.C., 150 beds. In both hospitals there were many science under the benevolent despotism of Colonel Sloggett, vacant beds. I was very favourably impressed with the the tactful and popular commandant. Mr. Fripp has gone neatness, cleanliness, and general efficiency of both. home and his place as surgeon-in-chief has been taken by At Norval’s Pont on the Orange river our train made a
THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.