LAND & WATER 
Apiil 26, iqij' 
Sere; , Wait a minute, tlinugli. There'll Ix? tiie men's 
p;iylxioks to be issued. Tlio quartermaster-sergeant will 
see to that of course. • There's a fonu tor making a will on 
active service on the last page. Kut the company ((mmianders 
will explain all that to the men. Ves, good-night, sergeant- 
major." 
"A good chap that. Addison!" said the adjutant as 
they movetl towards the orHer)^-^ room. " A very good 
chap ! " • 
» • » • 
They disembarked at Boulogne ami wiiliin a few days 
found themselves at Mons. There on that fatefiU Sunday they 
held tjie salient of the canal against o\-er\vhelming odds and, 
holding it, decided the fate of the world, i^nt i>f what mighty 
issues hung upon their resolution most of them knesv little 
and boasted not at all. and those who survived will to this day 
tell you nothing except that it was very " warm." They were 
badiy cut up ; Addison disappeared, and when the roll was 
called at the end of the first day of the retreat not a man of 
his platoon was there to answer it. Months afterwards the 
adjutant (by tliis time a C'ohynel) picked up their trail by a 
painful induction from the lists ttf' prisoners died of wounds," 
which filtered through from time to time, and adding them 
up he could account for twenty men. It struck him as some- 
thing curious that nearly half a platoon should die of 
wounds at such long intervhls after thfir capture— but he, 
left it at that. Of .\ddison and' iiis fate he could discover 
nothing at all. And then one day, some twenty-one months 
after the event, he learnt that the regimental sergeant-major 
had Ix-en rep,ajriated as a disabled ])risoner f)f war. He took 
a<lvantage of a low days' Iea\-e to get in touch witH "Records," 
and at last he found hims<^lf on a hot scent. It ended at a 
big stone buildin;,' on a loTieTv down in ,t southern county. 
II. 
The Medical Superintendent glanced at the card. " Show 
him in," he said. 
An officer entered. It was the colonel. He took in the 
room at a glance- he noted a row of books with the names 
of Huglilings, Jackson. bVrrier and Clouston on their backs 
and he saw on the table the corrected profif-sheets of a type- 
script with the superscription, '*^'The Localization of Cerebral 
Disease." Then Ik" glanciM aigain at the medical super- 
intendent and suddenly encountered a pair of eyes which 
seemed to be looking right through him. It was not the 
colour of the irises, that arreste<l<him but their visual inten- 
sity — they seemed to see tilings invisible to the ordinary eye 
of sense. You will often see that look in the eyes of an 
alienist. It is a lonely look, ihe next moment the doctor's 
eyes had changed their expression. They were masked by 
a homely look of bland and sociable enquiry, and this so 
suddenly that the colonel wondered whether he had been 
dreaming. 
'.' I have come to enquire after a man of my regiment, a 
sergeant-major, George Smith. Wounded and captured at 
Mons, 1 believe. I heard he'd lately been repatriated from 
Germany. Records inform mo that he was sent to D. Block 
at Netley and then here. I should like to have a talk with 
him, please. " 
" I see." said the Medical Superintendent, pensively. 
" I see. Won't yon sit down ? " He seemed to hesitate. 
"(Perhaps it's not your regular visiting daj'," said the colonel. 
" I'm sorry, but I'm on short leave." 
" No," said the Medical iikiperintendent. " No, it's not 
that. But he wouldn't know.ywi — and perhaps you wouldn't 
know him." 
The Colonel smiled incredulously. " Not know me ! I was 
adjutant to the battalion and he was regimental sergeant- 
major. Surely liis case is not so bad as that ? Look at 
these cases of shell shock. There's nothing you doctors cannot 
do in the healing line. Wiry ! I knew a man . . ." 
" You do us too nmch honour," said the doctor, deprecat- 
ingly. " Shell shock is jiriniarily a physical shock. The 
disorders it produces are functional, not organic- tmless of 
course there's a predisposition to insanity. A brain lesion's 
another matter you know. I've given much thought to his 
case — much thought." He looked out at the garden, brilliant 
with the early flowers of spring, and gaudy with the mere- 
tricious hues c)f Dutch tulips. " Those daffodils reminded me 
of it just now. I'lver heard of chromesthesia ? No ? Ah 
well, I won't weary you \<H{h psychiatry. It's not a thing to 
take up as a hobby. Let us look up the case." 
He crossed the room and taking down a large leather- 
bound folio turned the leaves rapidly. .\t the head of 
each |>age were the words " Medical History Sheet !" fol- 
towed'by a man's name and a number of entries in chronological 
order. In the middle of each page was pasted a photograph. 
"Smith — ."Mf red, .'Arthur, Charles," muttered the doctor, 
•' George 1 Yes, here it is. Sent here from Netley. • Dis- 
charged from the army under 392 (XVI) of King's Regulations. 
Permanently unfit. Delusional insanity.' They sent us if 
copy of his military history sheet. Long-service and Goo^ 
Conduct Medal, I see. Yes, yes, cpiite so. A dean livinf, 
man, 1 should say. No traces of syphilitic trouble. His 
juipils respond to light. His weight's improved, 1 see. He 
was ten stone when he came hvw and aii.Tmic. Starvation, 
of course. He's up to thirteen now -he'll' recover his norm.d 
weight in time.' Tliat's his photograph. '-"-We alwavs photo- 
graph them on admission." 
The Colonel looked at the photograph. He looked at it 
for a long time in silence. 
" Well," said the Doctor. " Do you still wish to see him ? 
Ycry well," and he pressed an electric button. 
" Bring Nii. 1101 here," he said to the attendant. "I 
suppose he's dressed. If not, tell them to dress him." 
The Colonel was looking at the view commanded by the 
doctoi*s window — a training camp under canvas, and, behind 
the bell-tents, mile U])on mile of rippling down crowned with 
spinneys of beech. The long shadows thrown upon their 
green slopes bv the fleecv clouds travHljng across the sky 
chased cme another till it seemed as if tlie' downs themselves 
were in ecstatic motion. And he felt it was rather 
good to be alive. 
" I think I know what the Psalmist meant wiien he said 
' the mountains skip like rams,' " he mused. " He must have 
been thinking of the southdown country on a sunny d^iy 
in —^_ — ." 
The Colonel turned at the sound of shuffling feet. lie 
saw at'the door a patient in loose grey clothes. He stared a 
long time. What it was that he saw I have never have been 
(luite able to understand, for when he told me the story weeks 
afterwards he could remember nothing clearly about the 
man's appearance except that the hands moved continually 
and fumbled with the clothes. 
The colonel advanced a step to speak. As he did so, the 
patient recoiled and rai.sed his arm in front of his face as 
though to ward off a blow. 
" Well, sergeant-major," said the colonel tentatively 
" You remember me ? Come, come." He felt as if he were 
coaxing a cliild. " You remember your old adjutant." 
At t\ie sound of his voice George Smith drew his heels to- 
gether and salut(Hl vaguely. He tunied his head in the 
direction of the voice and listened intently. He seemed 
to be trying to locate the colonel's ' voice. 
"Is he blind ? " 
" Not exactly. There's no sensoryblindness. He sees 
you ^ut doesn't recognise you, and y<Sur uniform conveys 
nothing to him. It's what we alienists call psychic blindness. 
D'you follow me ? " 
" Not quite. If he doesn't know my face how does he come 
to recognise my voice ? " 
Y The visual memory's gone, but the auditory memor\', 
though impaired, remains. How ? Well, I suspect some 
lesion to the nerve tracts c'onnecting the optic centres witli 
the centres for other ideas. To be plain with you I think 
he's had a blow on the head — he may have been treated 
to the butt-end of a rifle from one of his guards. It's a way 
they have, you know. The sound of your voice — I mean, 
the crude acoustic effect — has awakened something, of course, 
revived some auditory impression stored up in the cells of 
the brain. Yes, yes. His brain is like a dark room in which 
his mind is trying to develop a negative. The negative is the 
image conveyed by the sound of your voice. But who can see 
into a man's brain ? I've been trying to do it all my life. 
.Ml I know is that the mental photograph that's being developed 
at this moment in George Smith's bilrin will probably be 
hopelessly blurred." 
■ l^you remember the Delhi manoeuvres, sergeant-major ? " 
sitd the colonel suddenly as he leaned forward on his chair. 
" When we were up at Paniput ? No ! he doesn't — |X)or 
chap ! Remember when the huts at Blackdown caught fire 
and the tug-of-war teams put the rojie f-onnd the huts on each 
side of the mess and pulled them down and saved the mess 
phtc ? Surely you remember that? It was yoiu" notion 
that. And how we got the mess-sergeant to call you in after 
dinner that night and all drank your health ?- No ! D'you 
remember Mons ? The slag-heaps ! No ! " 
The colonel reflected for a moment. Then he drew hi-- 
whistle and sounded it, watching the man's face. The 
patient's lips moved. He trembled violently. Then he began 
to speak. 
" HoUl your fire ! Wait till I give Hiie word. Three hun- 
dred ! Steady ! Let them come on. At the enemv in front 
—-five rounds— rapid— FIRE 1 Oh! Very good.' Christ! 
the place's alive with'em. Where's our flank ? They're on 
our right now— they're enfilading us. Where are our sup- 
ports ? Nevermind! Give 'em hell, boys. Where's Mr. 
Addison ? Sir ? " 
The Colonel leaned forward eagerly and was about to 
