H.—l9b.

200

H. T. J. THACKEB.

70. From your position as a doctor, you think that the sore throats in October and November were sufficient to draw the attention of the medical men to the matter, and to put them on their guard, and take steps to carefully diagnose those cases? —Certainly. We have a swab for every throat that, looks at all suspicious. And not only that, but, when they saw those throats they should have given the men injections of diphtheritic anti-toxin stock serum. It is the recognized treatment in medical practice for a throat like that. I want to say that, the course of cerebrospinal meningitis is this: you first get a catarrhal condition of the throat and nose; you then get a septic throat with temperature, and then the advent of meningitis. The patient's system devitalizes from the septic throat, and he acquires the infectious condition known as epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. 71. That was the case of the man in the kiosk ? —Yes. I want to say that the Defence Department sent to Dunedin for their bacteriologist. T believe previous to that they had brought in Dr. Hector, of the Hutt. 72. Dr. Champtaloup is an officer of the Defence Department?—No; he is a specialist in Dunedin. The Defence Department brought him up to diagnose the organism, which the Defence Minister in the House has said was that of cerebro-spinal meningitis. Now, to continue about the men in the kiosk : I did not see any evidence of suitable feeding for the men there. There had arrived the day before three nurses: they were sister nurses. All the previous nursing had been done by fatigue-men and practically amateur orderlies. 73. Dr. Martin.] Was that up to the 28th June?— Yes. These men, of course, did their best; but by what they were doing when I was there I should say they knew nothing whatever about their work. A number of men were occupied sweeping up the dirt on the floor of the kiosk that had been brought in by the soldiers. There was a big wave of it between where the men were lying on the floor. 74. A wave of dust?—A wave of dirt: they were sweeping this up. 75. The nurses arrived on the 27th? —Yes, either the 26th or the 27th—-the day before I was there. I was so impressed with the lack of nurses that I thought it was necessary that some good working nurses should go out straight away, which was done. The transit for the cases from Trentham to Kaiwarra —that is, for the measles and more serious cases that had incipient pneumonia—was in open motor-cars. I know that that was a fact, because Dr. Harrison showed me the measles cases (as he called them), which were lying in the jockeys' and trainers' quarters by the horse-stalls. They were waiting for the motor-cars to come to take them away. That, was 11 o'clock, and they had been there some time, and they were going to get away about 1 o'clock. 76. The Chairman.] Dr. Ferguson said in his evidence that it was about the end of the second week in June that the kiosk was first occupied? Mr. Skerrett: Your Honour, Dr. Valintine says that he is certain that the kiosk was not opened until the 23rd June. Mr. Ferguson: According to my notes of Mr. Whyte's —that is, the secretary of the Racing Clvb —evidence he said that the caretaker admitted them to the trainers' quarters on the Sunday, and on the Monday he (Mr. Whyte) went out, and while there suggested to Dr. Valintine that they should remove the patients to the kiosk. That would be Sunday, the 13th, and Dr. Valintine apparently moved the men on Monday, the 14th June. 77. The Chairman.] Then the kiosk was occupied fourteen days before Dr. Thacker saw the men in it. In your opinion, Dr. Thacker, they could have got a nursing staff together?— Not only that, but they could have done all sorts of things. It is not for me to say what they could have done. I know what I would have done, and Dr. Martin will tell you what he would have done. Mr. Skerrett: Dr. Valintine says that he unofficially commandeered the jockies' and trainers' quarters on Sunday, the 13th June, but that he did not take possession of the tea-kiosk until the 23rd June, and that there were no patients in the kiosk before the 23rd June. Witness: Of course, what they wanted there was really not expert qualified nurses, but good practical women, such as they have there now. When 1 went back to Christchurch (I made the suggestion here in Wellington) there was a scheme arranged for getting volunteer sisters to undertake the work, and in twenty-four hours there were over two hundred women ready to take in hand the work. Some of them have come up since, and they are doing good work, caring for the men, washing them, and attending to them. While there I stated that men fifty years ago in the backblocks would have had just as good treatment. The two doctors that were there were worked off their legs. 78. The Chairman.] You were on the matter of the transit by open motor-cars?— Yes, I wanted to explain that the measles cases—eight or ten of them the day T was there —were in the jockeys' quarters —that is, in the place where the jockeys dress themselves. They were packed in bunks there. Evidently these bunks had been put up there for the jockeys to sleep there. The men were fully dressed and fully exposed, and they had the measles on them. Those men were then brought in by motor-cars to Kaiwarra, and if they were very serious cases they were taken to Berhampore or the Victoria Hospital. The male chronic ward at this hospital had been cleared; this is a ward for old men that need nursing attention. These men had been removed outside, and when I visited the. hospital they were getting ready to clean out the old ladies' ward. 79. Mr. Ferguson.] The old ladies' ward was cleaned out first?— Well, then the old men's ward was being cleaned out and made ready when I was there. They did not interest me as much as the soldiers. 80. The Chairman.] As to the medical attendance in the kiosk, do you consider that two Medical Officers were sufficient? —It was impossible to do the work with only two. It was specialists' throat-work, nasal irritations, and throat-swabbings. I told them they wanted from three to five more men. 81. Whom did you tell? —I told Dr. Ferguson and Dr. Harrison.