The average person who uses hospital supplies has very little conception of the great amount of storage space which is necessary in order to carry at all times in the warehouses a six months’ stock to the end that requisitions may be filled immediately upon receipt. As an illustration, the Medical Department of the Army had in operation within the territorial limits of the United States on November 1, 1918, ten large distributing depots, with an aggregate floor space of more than 2,000,000 square feet. This area expressed in square feet is so staggering as to convey a very inadequate conception of its size. To those of you who are familiar with the methods of describing land in the central and western states, it may be made intelligible by saying that the area exceeds that of a forty acre tract. In fact, it is approximately 45 acres. If you can conceive of such a tract piled ten feet high with supplies, allowing, of course, for roadways and aisles you will get some conception of the mass of material which had been accumulated for the Army at that date. Then bear in mind that there were thirty-three camps, each with its large general hospital, having three warehouses, approximately 25 × 125 feet more or less completely filled with supplies and you can get an idea of the quantity of supplies required for current use in those hospitals and for dispensary service of the camp. As a further illustration of the quantities of supplies necessary it may be permissible to state that the quantity of gauze of various meshes, from that required in bandages down to the coarsest grade used in surgical dressings, not forgetting, of course, the muslin, that was procured by use between April 6, 1917 and March, 1918, was sufficient to have provided a strip a yard wide around the earth at the equator and a bow knot consisting of several hundred miles in addition. If the yarn which was required in weaving this mass of material had been all made into one single thread, one end of it might have been hooked on the limb of some giant tree on earth with the other end dropped into one of the spots on the sun and still had a few thousand miles to spare. The number of beds actually available for use in the hospitals in the United States on January 1, 1919, if placed end to end would have stretched over a distance in excess of 90 miles. If the mattresses had been placed side by side and end to end to form a square, they would have covered sixteen acres. Proper warehousing is a very necessary part of the supply service. For efficient warehousing as well as for prompt and satisfactory distribution of supplies, a standard list of articles to be used is necessary. These articles should be grouped in the warehouse in conformity with the class to which they belong,—textiles in one place; drugs, medicines and reagents in another; hospital furniture in another, and so on through the entire list of supplies.