Medical Attention.—­The health of the inmates of Sidi Bishr Camp is looked after by an English doctor, Captain Gillespie, assisted by an Armenian doctor, who practised at Aleppo in Turkey before the war.

These two doctors speak Arabic and Turkish.

An English corporal and 5 English hospital orderlies take care of the sick.

Twenty-one Egyptian orderlies do the sanitary work of the camp; serious cases are sent to the English hospital at Alexandria.  A Turkish Surgeon-Major, Dr. Ibrahim, interned at the camp, is present at operations performed upon his Ottoman comrades in the hospital.  He expressed himself as entirely satisfied with the care bestowed upon them.

The infirmary contains 12 iron bedsteads, with wool mattresses and blankets.  The consulting room is well fitted up, the cupboards abundantly supplied with drugs.  An isolation ward accommodates infectious cases in the incubation stage.  Bathrooms reserved for the patients adjoin the infirmary, and there is a kitchen service for preparing special diet.

Officers troubled by their teeth are taken to a dentist in Alexandria.

The prisoners’ garments and bedding are sterilised in a special apparatus.

All new arrivals pass 14 days in quarantine, in special quarters in one of the sections of the camp.  They are permitted to join their comrades only when it is certain that they are free from any contagious malady.  At present 36 officers and 34 orderlies are in quarantine.

Illnesses and Deaths-All officers imprisoned at Sidi Bishr having been vaccinated against smallpox, typhoid, and cholera, there are no epidemics in the camp.  Three to five officers come forward each morning when the doctor makes his rounds.  There are perhaps 6 light cases of malaria weekly, 3 to 5 cases of bacillic dysentery every month, treated with serum; 1 case of more serious dysentery was sent away to the English Hospital in Alexandria.  In summer there are some mild cases of diarrhoea.  There were 3 cases of trachoma among the officers’ orderlies.  Four tuberculous patients, coming from the Hedjaz, were conveyed to the hospital without any stay at the camp; two died after 20 and 30 days of treatment respectively.  In the infirmary at Sidi Bishr are now: 

1 officer with a foot wound, 1 suffering from pharyngitis, and one passing 1/2 per cent. of albumen.

Some of the Turkish officers were wounded in the war: 

One whose thigh was amputated is provided with a fine artificial substitute; one who had both bones of the lower arm fractured, and was operated upon four times, is now well on the way to recovery.

One suffering from hemiplegia, owing to a fractured skull, is now able to move again and to walk with crutches.  Another lame officer is affected by rupture of a main nerve in the leg.

Salik Sidki, judge of Mecca, entrusted us with a letter of thanks to the English authorities, in recognition of the care which he received at the hospital where he underwent a severe operation for a chronic affection of the pylorus.