H.—l9b.

142

|W. B. 0. FERGUSON.

case, and no one realized this other epidemic was amongst us. Orderlies were quite competent to deal with cases of cold and influenza. 129. Who took the temperatures?— Before the nurses came? 130. Between the 14th and 27th June?— The orderlies. 131. What orderly ?—Sergeant Morton. 132. Did he take them all?—He did not take them all: he would lake some and hand them to me when I went in the morning. If I had any doubt about a case I would take the temperature myself. 133. Had these orderlies had any instruction at all in regard to nursing? —I do not know anything about that. 134. For instance, sponging down a patient—who would do that? —An orderly. 135. Did you find out whether he was a trained man before you asked him to sponge a patient down?—l asked him if he had done sponging down, and he told me he had. 136. Can you give me the name of one of the orderlies?—l cannot, except Sergeant Morton. He was in charge of the orderlies, and he would put on the men and show them how to do it. 137. Sergeant Badger said this morning there was a man with a temperature of 103, and he was marched from the lines to the kiosk : do you remember that case? —No, I. do not; but in any case I would have nothing to do with that. The doctor of the lines on the sick-parade would have to do that. 138. But you would receive him? —Yes, I would find that was a man with a temperature of 103. 139. Do you remember any such case?—No, I do not. 140. Mr. Ferguson.] Should Sergeant Badger, who received that case, necessarily report it specially as being an extraordinary case, that a man with a temperature of 103 was walked up from the lines —was it his duty to do so?— Yes. Badger received all admissions, and, of course, it was his duty to inform me of anything unusual; but as 1 was going in and going to the different beds it is quite possible he might leave it until I got to the bedside. 141. Dr. Martin.] Did you every ask for any assistance? —Yes, many times. 142. Did you get it?—We did not get it immediately. We wanted other medical men to come in. We asked if the lines would be filled up, but it seemed impossible to get them at that time. 143. Were you overworked at the kiosk?— Well, there was a rush of disease, and we had to work very long hours. I have worked as long hours before in an epidemic. 144. But you were quite able to overtake all the patients?— Yes. If one had been missing serious cases it would be a different matter, but one was simply doing hard bullocking work. Eighty per cent, had very little the matter with them, but still one had to see them to be sure they were not going wrong. 145. You never had any temperature-charts in the kiosk?—No;, there were not charts sufficient for three hundred men. We had to use books and loose sheets. 146. Mr. Ferguson.] Do the ambulance men have a special training as ambulance men? —Yes. 147. Is that training given by the doctors?—A number of them who came into the camp have never been trained previously. Of course, we had no opportunity of giving them training in the camp. 148. There was no training given to the ambulance men in the camp prior to the outbreak of the epidemic?— There was no training given to the men who were attending on the men ill in the marquee. 149. There was no practical instruction in ambulance duties given to the Ambulance Corps? —I believe there was, but I was not present. It was not part, of my duty. 150. The Chairman.] What were you attached to? —I was supposed to go with the Sixth. I was to go into camp, I suppose, to get some military training. 151. Mr. Ferguson.] I want to know whether those men had had previous training either at Trentham or elsewhere? —That question I could not answer. 152. Mr. Gray.] In regard to the equipment, of the hospital generally, have you anything to say about the marquee hospital previous to going to the racecourse? —It seems exactly the same thing happened in the marquees as happened in the racecourse. 153. I mean the ordinary camp hospital with which you were associated before the epidemic? —Well, I only had one day. As a matter of fact, Captain Tolhurst was in charge of the hospital. He asked me that day to take it for him. That was the day on which the move was made, and that is how I got into the racecourse business. 154. Have jou anything to say about the equipment at the camp hospital when you saw it— any fault to find with it?— None whatever. 155. During the month of May was Colonel Purdy supervising the camp generally?— Yes; he was there the time I was there, 156. Have you any reason to suppose that, in the kiosk hospital the temperature of the patients was not regularly and properly taken? —I am absolutely certain it was. 157. And until the nurses came was any inconvenience caused, so far as you know, for want of nurses? —I do not think so. 158. You were satisfied, were you, with the way the orderlies performed their duties?—l was. 159. The Chairman.] In regard to latrines, Badger's brother said the men had to get up out of their sick-beds and go right down the cold room. There were no bed-pans provided?— Yes, there certainly was at the beginning of the epidemic a shortage of bed-pans, but that was remedied as soon as possible. 160. And we have it from the sergeant that they used to get up at, night even when bedpans were there? —Yes; it was very difficult to make a lot of those boys think they were ill. A