11. A. DE LAUTOUR. j

131

H.—l9b.

113. Do you say there was none supplied?—l could not see any. 114. How often did you go there? —Every time I was there. 115. On each of your four visits?— Not on my first visit. I cannot tell, myself, but it. struck me that there was not enough seats for the number of men. 116. Do you know that the system was adopted of changing the pans every day?— Quite so : it is necessary. 117. And you heard from Lieut.-Colonel Potter that the camp was singularly free from flies?—l saw the flies when I was there. 118. Many?— Quite enough to spread disease. 119. But that might, be said of a single fly?—lt is always a carrier, and there were plenty there. 120. A good deal of change has come over the views of medical authorities within the last thirty years in regard to fresh air? —I do not know that il has. 121. In your younger days was it not the rule to keep a man in a closed room? —In my younger days, in the early " seventies " —lB7O-71—we had lectures upon that subject, and on one occasion Professor Partridge, talking about, the value of fresh air, said, " I quite agree with Miss Nightingale in regard to the necessity for fresh air, but I do object to being blown out of my bed." That is the way he put it—the difference between sufficient fresh air and a draught. 122. Now, in regard to these hutments, you spoke of flu- possibility of there being infection communicated from hut to hut, partly as the result of the huts not being built in echelon. Do you suggest that with the winds that blow at Trentham there is any risk of any foul, contaminated air from No. 1 hut being carried through to hut No. 2?— Not only from hut No. 1, but from one end to the other of the huts. 123. Do you suggest that there is any risk of foul air being carried from hut to hut?— Quite easily. The wind from the north would blow through from the hut in the north to that in the south. 124. Do y 7 ou suggest that the last hut in the row would get any wind at all, and, at any rate, less contaminated air than the others? —The question is not only whether the contamination would be carried from hut to hut, but it would be more, because it would collect. 1.25. Can you suggest, then, that there would be no breeze between the huts?— They were more like alley-ways and not good intervals, and at the time of my visits these intervals were blocked with tents. The purfiose for which they were put there was not maintained, because I saw numbers of tents filling up these intervals. 126. You know that the nor'-wester has very searching properties?— Yes. 127. And that it has the peculiarity, strangers say, of being able to blow from all points of the compass at once? —Yes, round corners, for instance; but y 7 ou do not, get that in the open spaces. 128. Would not that wind blow in about the huts, ensuring all the fresh air any man could want? —A great deal more. 129. You suggest that the last hut of the row would have nothing in it but foul air accumulated from all the other huts?—l do not suggest that at all. A gentle breeze would go through, carrying all the foul air from one hut into another, and bringing in fresh air at the same time. 130. And I understand that there is less risk of infection through the air than through personal contact :is that so? —I think there is a good deal of infection from the lungs by medium of the air. 1.31. If the men are occupying a small space?— The risk of contact from the skin is less than from the lungs. 132. That is more in the case of persons occupying the same place—l mean through being in a confined and unventilated space?—Of course, there is more risk in the confined space. 133. There is not much risk in a man walking about the streets? —I think there is a good deal of risk. There are germs in the sand and dust that convey influenza and all sorts of things. I am certain that you and I have plenty of germs in our mouths. We all have these germs, but we are not susceptible to them at the time. 134. It is suggested to me by "medical men that the treatment of infectious diseases by the barrier, cubicle, and isolation systems have their foundation in the knowledge that few infections, if any, are readily air-borne?—l should like to know what he was meaning by the " isolation system." I say that is contrary to my own experience, and it, is contrary to my belief. That is merely an assertion of that individual. The cubicle system is condemned in barracks and hutments. Tt is adopted here, I understand, in the officers' places. 135. I am informed that it has been carried out under the regulations of the Local Government Board? —That is probably for hospitals, but not for barracks and hutments, as it interferes with tlie perflation of air. You require more than your 600 ft., because tlie air is confined. 136. Dr. Frengley tells me that these Local Government Board regulations provide for the treatment of infectious cases under the cubicle system? —Yes, very likely; but I am speaking not in regard to the treatment of disease, but in regard to the prevention of disease. I am looking at it from a health prevention point of view. 1.37. I gather from you that if the huts had been built upon lines suggested by one of the authorities you have quoted you would have no fault to find with them?— Certainly not. 138. You suppose that, the hutments built in the recent English camps would be built upon those lines? —One might imagine that in time of war and in view of the necessity for training men quickly they might have to stretch a point, and the experience thai they have had at Home from excessive disease in the hutments is thus explained. The building of these hutments in a hurry, and not on the lines laid down, explains the mortality amongst the troops. 139. The Chairman.] You say that Mr. Tennent stated that this was due to the hutments? — No.