Notes on the Reorganisation of the Field Ambulance for Work on the Indian Frontier, with Suggestions for Improvements in Equipment and Training

SinciC the abolition of Dundreary whiskers and the pill?box hat, the Indian army has undergone many changes in both training and equipment and in its methods of attack and defence, but the field ambulance has changed in little but its name. Anyone who has had to do with a brigade in the field knows that the field ambulance is regarded as either a joke or a nuisance, and is an eyesore on the march and an offence and a stumbling block in camp. Put more shortly, it is an anachronism. Tyre first duty of the medical services in war is " to relieve combatant units of the encumbrance of wounded," everything else is secondary, and this is the duty par excellence of the field ambulance, It cannot possibly fulfil this function if it is organised and equipped as a hospital on wheels. Consider for a moment the theoretical method of employing" a field a'mbulance in