board a transport similarly ventilated, the Committee of Survey might very justly quote it as their guide.

So firm, however, is my conviction that the calamity on board the ship 'India' was caused, and kept up by deficient ventilation, that I think it my duty to point out how all the highest authorities were misled, and to prove, as far as practicable, that neither previous contagion on board the vessel, nor the embarking of men previously affected with infectious disease was the cause of the outbreak. That in fact it was deficient ventilation which was the agency chiefly concerned in converting what, under ordinary favourable circumstances, would be considered ailments of no importance, into a most virulent and infectious form of typhoid fever.

The way in which the Authorities were misled was as follows: Soon after the outbreak of disease became known, BrigadierGeneral Stewart of the Bengal Army, who had been President of the Committee of Survey, which examined the India' prior to her leaving Calcutta, wrote to a friend in Bengal, stating that the vessel was ventilated in the same manner precisely as a sister vessel which had also conveyed kahars, but upon which there had been no outbreak of disease. This letter was shown to the Commander-in-Chief of India, who, as stated by the Quartermaster-General of the Bengal Army, was, therefore, unwilling to accept my views. It also evidently weighed much with the Sanitary Commissioner, and there can be but little doubt that the statement had its weight with even higher authority.

That General Stewart believed at the time of writing, that what he wrote was true, there can be no doubt, but that he was in error is fully proved in the printed reports. He, moreover, admitted in conversation with me, that the sister-ship had the long deck ventilators with which the ship' India' was not provided. Now it would not only have been but a common act of justice towards me, had he afterwards written to his official friend to point out his mistake as soon as he became aware of it, but he might thus have assisted the Government in coming to a right conclusion. As it was, he misled the Authorities by an incorrect statement-consequently, all opinions based upon that statement may fairly be regarded as cancelled.

With a view of showing the importance of whether General Stewart's statement was correct or not, we may glance for a moment at the difference that there would have been in the 'India,' had she, as stated, been ventilated in all particulars in the same manner as the sister-ship. From the Report of the MasterAttendant at Calcutta, we find that the ' India' was ventilated by twenty-six side scuttles, three hatchways, two ballast-ports, six cowl-headed ventilators, and five air shafts, while the sister-ship had, in addition, sundry long box ventilators on deck.

The twenty-six side scuttles and two ballast-ports may be taken U. S. MAG. No. 503, OCT., 1870.

N

as representing one-third of the whole ventilating apparatus on the India,' which, has as already been stated afforded an area of fifty-seven square inches of inlets and outlets per man. By shutting the scuttles and ports you reduce the area to thirty-eight square inches per man. But had there been, say four deck ventilators, each twenty feet long by eighteen inches wide, an additional area of forty-one square inches per man, making a total of ninety-eight under ordinary circumstances would have been obtained, while a minimum of seventy-nine would have been available through all but the most stormy weather.

Had this arrangement been made on board the India,' as we may assume it was on the sister ship, (and certainly was on all the sailors' vessels which conveyed troops or followers from Bombay), it may reasonably be concluded that there would have been no outbreak of disease on the one, any more than upon the other. May it not then be also reasonably thought that if General Stewart's statement had not been made, or if it had been corrected when he found out his error, the Government of India would have been able to arrive at a more correct conclusion than they could upon the statements placed before them, and that measures could have been taken to prevent a similar calamity occurring on any future expedition?

With such a marked disproportion as there was between the ventilating apparatus on board the ship India' for that upon every other vessel, would not any one who had at all turned his attention to such matters, at once say, "herein lies a most palpable reason for the difference in health of the men being conveyed in the India' and those going in any other vessel ?

Having now, I trust, fully shown how the Government were misled, we may examine into the grounds upon which the Sanitary Commissioner, and others, thought that the disease arose from some men having been taken on board who had previously been infected.

This opinion was formed by a Committee at Zoolla, assembled by order of General Stewart, who was (perhaps naturally) dissatisfied with the Report already made. It is no disparagement to these gentlemen to say that they were too young and inexperienced to be supposed capable of forming a correct opinion upon the appearance of epidemic fever of a bad type on board ships, than which, as His Excellency Sir W. Mansfield observed, "there is no subject which more completely baffles the acumen of medical officers." They might, however, have rendered essential service had they gone thoroughly into the subject, or at any rate, if they could not do this, have taken and recorded all the evidence available, instead of, as by their printed proceedings seeking information from only the Captain, who was not likely to decry his vessel, and myself, who was not likely to contradict what I had already expressed as my decided opinion. There were several able

gentlemen who might have given them valuable evidence about Zoolla itself, but it was not asked for. Nevertheless, as they were called upon to express an opinion, they did so, and this proved to be one adverse to mine. They considered that the disease was carried on board by men previously infected, and that it was in no way attributable to defective ventilation. Had this opinion, altogether unsupported as it appears to be by any reliable evidence, been allowed to rest in the Quartermaster-General's office, I should not have thought it worth while to notice it; but it went on to different authorities, and apparently carried great weight with the Sanitary Commissioner, who was under the impression that defective ventilation could not have been the cause of the disease, having, has as been shown, been misled by General Stewart. It therefore becomes incumbent upon me to show that previous infection was not the cause of the epidemic.

(To be continued.)

THE FIELD OF WATERLOO IN 1870.

BY COLONEL SIR J. E. ALEXANDER, K.C.L.S.

A word of undying interest is Waterloo, events of such vast importance in the world's history resulted from the great conflict of the 18th June 1815, that generations will pass away before the description of the heroic efforts for victory by English, French, and Germans will cease to stir the blood.

Among British Military writers, for sometime, a war of words had raged regarding the crisis, the closing scene of the great combat, too much credit it was said had been assumed by some of the actors at the end of the fight, and too little value assigned to the deeds of others. An examination of the ground on which stood the Anglo-allied line when the Emperor Napoleon sent his noble soldiers of the Imperial Guard, against the centre of the Allied position, shattered and no doubt supposed to be easily penetrable after seven hours' endurance of iron storms, was deemed of such consequence as to induce me to examine lately the field of Waterloo, when sojourning temporarily in the north of France, and to record my impressions as the result of my observations.*

The month of June is no doubt the best to give one a true estimate of the appearance of the two opposing ridges, and the slopes descending from them, where the French and Allied lines. stood opposed to each other to strike for victory, as then the face of the country is covered with splendid crops of wheat, oats, bar

* I gave a valuable memorandum of Field Marshal Lord Seaton, on Waterloo, in an article in the United Service Magazine of April, 1868.

ley, beans, potatoes, clover &c., but one cannot move then with facility in all directions over the mile and a half, where the fiercest fighting took place and the ground was deluged with the gore of men and horses,

"Where the red rain doth the harvest most enrich."

April or August are good months, before the grain appears or after it is gathered. It was in April I left Brussels in a light calêche with a companion, Captain G. Harwood Cope, 14th Regt. and we admired the improvements taking place in the outskirts of the Belgian capital, in the wooded drives and walks and artificial water contrived after the manner of the ever charming Bois de Boulogne of Paris, by the very popular and enlightened King of the Belgians, who does all in his power to encourage what will make life agreeable to his industrious, thriving and orderly people, and whose independence we earnestly hope will ever be preserved.

Passing through the open Forest of Soignie on the way to the Field of Waterloo, in the village of the same name the church has to be examined, interesting as containing the monumental slabs of various officers of the British Army; in the street also is the house where the Duke of Wellington wrote his despatch during the night of the 18th June. In another place is shewn the small table and chairs used at a council of war. The spot where the Marquis of Angelesea's leg, lost at the end of the fight, was buried and the boot he wore on the shattered limb is preserved.

The villages and farm house of Mt. St. Jean being also passed, where the wounded where chiefly cared for, and a very intelligent guide, J. Pirson, being secured, we arrived after a 12 miles drive at the hostel (Hotel de Musée) of Madame Cotton, niece of the late English guide to Waterloo, Sergeant-Major Edward Cotton, 7th Hussars, who now lies under a stone alongside Captain Blackman of the Guards in the garden of Hougomont, to which he so often conducted the curious and so well described.

The Hotel de Musée is close under the mound of the Belgian Lion, and is the place best suited for those who wish to take a complete survey of the field of battle and the environs. Brussels, the village of Waterloo and Mt. St. Jean are too distant to put up at; we found for two days and a night the Hotel de Musée very convenient and clean and comfortable, and the charges quite fair and reasonable.

A room in the hotel contains many good engravings connected with the battle, portraits of officers, plans of the battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo, and Wavre. A number of interesting autographs, and a large collection of genuine relics, as weapons of all kinds, fire arms, swords, sabres and bayonets, also cuirasses, helmets, caps, military clothing, and accoutrements, medals and crosses. A pair of Napoleon's spurs and some of his kitchen utensils, marked with the letter N and the Imperial Crown.

Ascending by 200 steps the pyramidal mound raised at great labour and cost by taking earth from the centre of the allied position, the base of the great Belgic Lion is reached and a most exten. sive, interesting and comprehensive view is obtained of the shallow valleys and long ridges of the Field of Waterloo and of distant objects of note-such as, looking south, Planchenoit, where the fierce fighting took place with the Prussians coming in upon the right and rear of the French from the direction of Wavre, Rosomme, past which Napoleon advanced on the Genappe or Charleroi road to occupy his position on two sides of it. Woods in the distant right towards which the Nivelle road leads, the Belgic Lion being beetween the Charleroi and Nivelle roads, which unite at some distance behind it at Mount St. Jean. Immediately behind the Lion is the cross road along which and in rear of it, stood the allied army looking south and extending from the Nivelle road to the country houses of Papelotte and Ter-la-Haye beyond which are Frichermont and the hamlet of Smohain.

Carrying the eye along the Charleroi road are seen the monuments erected to the memory of the Honourable Sir Alexander Gordon, A.D.C. brother of the Earl of Aberdeen, another erected in memory of the Hanoverians who fell, and in the far distance a Prussian monument near Planchenoit. Along the Charleroi road are also seen the white and substantial building of the farm house of La Haye Sainte, around and in which a deadly conflict raged before it fell into the hands of the French, who evacuated it when the fortune of the day was against them. Further on, is the public house of La Belle Alliance, where Wellington and Blucher were said to have met at the close of the combat,* and last of all, along the road, is the house of Napoleon's guide, De Coster, in front of which the Emperor sat at a table with his plans and maps before him to direct the movements of his troops. At the time, through failing health, he was not able to keep his saddle long and ride over the field as had been his habit on previous occasions of battle. The Duke of Wellington being in good and vigorous health, moved in all directions, a great advantage.

But Hougomont, the old chateau with its walled enclosures, its small wood, its orchard, its avenue from the Nivelle road, lying at the foot of the slope on the right front of the spectator on his "coigne of vantage" the Lion, has always a special interest attached to it, for here the first shots were fired and a great struggle ensued. During the whole day, from half past eleven to nightfall, the roar of the cannon resounded about it, the rattle of musketry, the shouts of the combatants and the smoke from the burning

* I have in my possession, left me by a relative, the cocked hat and uniform coat of Field-Marshal the Prince Blucher, which he wore at the battle of Leipsic, as certified by the Baron Strantz, aide-de-camp, these were left in London in 1814, for his likeness in waxwork, and afterwards sold, with the sash and aiguilette at Crockford's for £40.