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woman in her condition should be carried along a cold corridor, up a flight of stairs. Do you agree with that ?—I think it would be better to shift the woman straight from the operating-room into her bed; it would be better to so shift any serious abdominal case. 4083. When she left the operating-table could you tell whether the bleeding had stopped or not?—l cannot say. My attention was taken up with the patient herself. 4084. Carrying her upstairs would necessarily give rise to a certain amount of jerking?— Very little, but there would be some. 4085. You cannot avoid jerking? —No. 4086. Dr. Batchelor says that under these circumstances there is a risk of dislodging bloodclots?—There is certainly a risk of that. 4087. Ought there to be such a risk after such an operation? Do you think that the hospital arrangements ought to be so imperfect as that ?—I do not. 4088. Is it impossible to avoid that ?—You cannot avoid a certain amount of risk in carrying a patient upstairs like that. 4089. He also complains that when he performed the secondary operation the necessary light was bad, and that the arrangements generally were insufficient ?— The light certainly was bad. 4090. Can you disagree with his statement that in consequence of the faulty arrangements he was hampered in the performance of the secondary operation, which took a great deal longer than it should have done? —Yes, it did. 4091. Is not that a serious matter in the case of a woman who was in the critical condition that this woman was ? —Yes. 4092. The Chairman.] When you removed the bandages, did you find the drainage-tube in the position in which it had been placed ?—Yes. 4093. It had not shifted in any way?— No. 4094-7. I want you to listen to this report which Dr. Batchelor forwarded to the Trustees. If there is anything in it that you disagree with stop me at once. Dr. Batchelor says : " The operation was a severe one, but presented no unusual difficulties. The patient was in feeble health, as these patients usually are. She exhibited during the 'operation a tendency to bleed, which was arrested without special difficulty. At the termination of operation certain precautions were adopted to obviate, as far as possible, any tendency to its recurrence. On removal from the operating-table the patient was excessively weak and collapsed, and in this condition had to be removed from the operating-room, along a cold passage and up a flight of stairs, to the special ward set apart for these cases. . . . On my return home from my round (6.30 p.m.) I immediately visited the patient, and found her weak and pale from the heavy loss of blood she had sustained, all active hemorrhage being then arrested. The question of reopening the wound and searching for the source of the bleeding was anxiously considered and finally decided against. One point that carried weight in this discussion being that the ward in which the operation would have to be performed was an unfavourable one, being insufficiently lighted and having no proper appliances " ?—I never heard that the insufficiency of the lighting mentioned at the time. 4098. Dr. Batchelor goes on to say : " The special points I wish to draw attention to are : I consider it was a highly dangerous proceeding to remove the patient (while suffering from collapse consequent upon a severe abdominal operation) along a cold passage and up a flight of stairs.- The former proceeding must tend, in my opinion, to increase shock ; the latter is liable to induce hemorrhage by dislodging clots which may have formed in the mouth of vessels torn across during the operation "?—Just so. 4099. He further says : " The unsuitable nature of the ward in which the patient lay after the operation was an important factor in deciding me against immediately reopening the wound and searching for the source of the bleeding. Had this step been taken at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, instead of at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the patient's chance of recovery would have been much better. The cause of the poor woman's death was collapse, consequent on hemorrhage and exposure of the contents of the abdomen. It is a well-recognised fact that shock or collapse in abdominal operations depends in a very great measure upon the length of time occupied in the operation. If the secondary operation could have been completed in half-an-hour (the whole primary operation barely occupied three-quarters of an hour), as I believe it would have been easily completed under favourable circumstances, there cannot be the faintest shadow of a doubt that my patient's chance of recovery would have been materially increased " ?—lt might have been. I never heard that mentioned at the time. 4100. Is it a fact ?—lt would have to be done upstairs. 4101. Were there proper appliances at hand?— What do you mean by " proper appliances " ? 4102. Hot water, for instance ?—There was plenty. 4103. What about the douche ?—The same thing would occur in the operating-room. 4104. W Thy ?—The supply in the vessel will not last throughout the whole operation. 4105. Would it not be fixed to a tap in the operating-room?—-No. It would be raised to a height. 4106. Mrs. A is the woman who has been in the Hospital for a very long time, and who has the septic chart ? —She has an up-and-down chart. 4107. She has a suppurating wound, which is a source of danger of infecting another person? —-Yes. It might give off pus, which on drying might be carried off in the atmosphere. That is how the danger arises. 4108. But with perfect antiseptic precautions there is no danger?— Theoretically, no, but practically there is some danger. 4109. Practically, there is some element of danger?— Yes. 4110. Supposing a ward to be crowded, and not sufficiently ventilated, the danger would be greater, would it not ?—lt would