and some articles of surgical dressing and restoratives. Also means of carrying the arms and kit of the sick.

7. It must be covered from the weather, be it hot or cold. 8. It should be easily loaded with its sick.

Fig 27.

ENGLISH ARMY SICK-TRANSPORT WAGGON, SHOWING THE FARIS' STRETCHER RUN IN ON THE FLOOR OF THE WAGGON.-CENTRE BOARD NOT SHOWN IN ENGRAVING.

The English Regulation Sick-Transport (Ambulance) Waggon has four wheels. Two of large size (56 inches diameter) behind, and a smaller pair (36 inches in diameter) in front, locking under the carriage, and thus enabling it to

turn round on a small axis, and greatly obviating the risks of upsetting. Waggons which have equal wheels before and behind are called "equirotal waggons." The body has a floor space, 9 feet 4 inches long by 5 feet 3 inches wide, and rests upon the axletrees by semi-elliptical springs, with a check-spring under the centre of the waggon.

The wooden sides are about 20 inches high, and from them run up from sockets three iron standards on either side, supporting an angular framework of ash hinged along the centre, forming the waggon roof, which, with the sides, is covered by white canvas, dropping as curtains over. the waggon, and forming also a hood to protect the driver and patients in front, and curtains to shield those sitting behind. A canvas curtain also closes the front of the waggon behind the driver's seat, preventing wind and rain entering the waggon from that end. The interior of the waggon is divided longitudinally by a partition 14 inches high, which separates the floor into two equal portions, and these portions are occupied by two stretchers of the ordinary "Faris" pattern, which are run in on their wheels into the waggon. Besides these lying-down arrangements for two patients, three individuals, viz. the driver and two patients, can sit on the front driving seat; and three more, two patients and an orderly, can sit on a hind seat on a level with the floor of the carriage, with their legs hanging out, and protected by a tail-board and leather apron. A sliding partition of wood is placed across the waggon near the rear, acting as a backboard for those sitting on the hind seat. Both seats have leather-covered cushions. Water is carried in a tank (9 gallons) under the body of the waggon, and there is also a corn locker at the rear of the floor of the waggon. A ladder, for use of the patients entering the vehicle, is carried along the sides of the waggon. There are two lockers, one on either side of the sides of the waggon in front, one being used for restoratives, and the other for tools, &c. A double-screw brake worked by a cranked lever handle acts on the hind wheels; a drag shoe is also carried.

The rifles and kits of the sick are placed on the floor of the waggon. The waggon weighs about 17 cwt., empty, and with eight persons and their kits, 30 cwt., and costs at the Royal Arsenal £186.

For shipment, the vehicle takes completely to pieces, the iron supports, and the roof come off, and the wooden sides are likewise collapsible. The wheels are taken off and the tail-board, and the whole can be packed into a ship-space of about 3 tons. The waggon is usually drawn by two horses, and can either be driven, by pole or shafts, from the seat in single or double harness, or by a postillion riding one of the horses.

The existing new-pattern waggon which we have just briefly described, also differs from the old-pattern waggon by not having a special" waggon-stretcher." The waggonstretcher was a special article to which the wounded were transferred from the field-stretcher, and then run into the waggon. Surgeon-Major Faris having adapted wheels to the field-stretcher, it is alone used, and runs in along the waggon-floor without the patient being shifted in any way. Spare field-stretchers to the number of four are carried in each sick-transport waggon, rolled up, and suspended by straps from the iron standards on either side.

This waggon cannot be regarded as final of its kind, and we shall refer to its interior arrangement and the system of carrying its patients in due course, but it is in every way a great improvement on the original patterns of waggons introduced after the Crimean campaign.

It must always be remembered that all military carriages in the English service are built by the same department that construct the gun-carriages of the Artillery.

As a result of this system, our ambulance sick-transport carriages are heavier and more weightily constructed than is needed. No doubt the officials charged with their construction can produce many examples of broken vehicles which have given way before the shocks of field service. But it is to be remembered that if one sees carriages constructed on artillery lines, the tendency is to

use them in the rough artillery fashion, and to so load them, and so drive them, as if they were horse artillery guncarriages taking a “bee line" across country. This very rudely strong construction then probably defeats its own end, and lighter carriages, built like the tradesmen vans we see so largely used in business work, would probably never be so heavily loaded, nor would the drivers attempt to thoughtlessly cross country with them.

If one had the power, one would like to withdraw all ambulance-carriage construction from the Gun-carriage Factory, and place it in the hands of civil coach-builders, explaining to them what was needed for us, and offering a prize for the most suitable article.

It is absurd to think that the mere fact of having to take a vehicle to pieces for shipment should necessarily handicap its construction. Such needs could easily be met by civil coach-builders, and no doubt many new combinations would be seen.

The National Aid Society, with its blank cheque on the wealth and philanthropy of the public, might well offer a prize for such a vehicle.

We must point out then in criticising our military sicktransport waggon, that, with all its huge space, practically only two seriously wounded men can be carried lying down, and that four more slightly wounded are carried, two in front, and two in the hind seat of the carriage. Can we consider this as a perfect waggon? Can we consider that a seat with the driver on a wet or snowy day or night is a suitable place for a wounded or sickly man?

Nor can we consider

The verdict would frankly be no. the hind seat, with its apron and tailboard, a very desirable place for delicate men in bad weather, apart from its backboard blocking up the thoroughfare or free entrance for the attendants into the sick men lying within. In point of fact, the two patients with the driver would be frozen with the cold, and the patients behind completely stop the way to allow the orderlies to feed or supervise the serious cases within.

These defects have then to be dealt with, and they point to the absolute need of arrangement for four lying-down patients, or two lying-down patients, with four others sitting in omnibus fashion, well protected within the vehicle. This arrangement would leave the driver's two seats available for carrying the nursing orderlies of the hospital, and also the hind seats for the same purpose.

It is absolutely essential to remember that if we make our nursing orderlies march, without any carriage being given them, they become so wearied as to be unfit for work on arrival in camp-the very time when doctors' and

Fig. 28.

SICK-TRANSPORT WAGGON OF THE AUSTRIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY, VIENNA, BY LOHNER & CO., VIENNA.-CARRYING FOUR PATIENTS LYING DOWN, OR TWO LYING DOWN AND FOUR SITTING OMNIBUS FASHION.

orderlies' work begins. Of course, the seats we speak of would always be available for sick or wounded in great emergencies, but for routine purposes the interior of the waggon should be ample and sufficient.

Let us first glance at the construction of some foreign waggons.

The sick-transport waggon of the Austrian Red Cross Society, built by Lohner & Co. of Vienna, seems a very lightly built yet strong vehicle. Its whole construction is more after the fashion of the hickory and steel combinations of America than of our artillery-waggon-like structures. At the Berlin Exhibition the waggons built by this well