amongst the public, in answer to a special appeal. A small department for games and puzzles has also been started in response to urgent requests from the hospitals. Efforts are always made by the workers at the War Library to meet the individual needs of special cases brought to their notice, and this personal touch with patients in hospital is of infinite value. Men with long months of life in bed before them have been enabled, by means of the books thus provided, to study for particular professions and trades. “It is our special boast,” says Mrs. Gaskell, “that no request for literature has ever been refused by the War Library, even to selecting and packing 20,000 books in twenty-four hours, or again such a request as we had from no less than three Colonial hospitals, who asked for the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ in forty volumes!” The effects of the work of the War Library are so far-reaching as to be incalculable. It is safe to say that no small group of women, such as Mrs. Gaskell and her helpers, can have done more throughout the war to cheer the lonely and depressed, to amuse and interest the weary, and to turn the minds of men in pain to fresh channels which help them to forget their suffering. The work of the Camps Library was started in October, 1914, and now consists of the colossal task of providing a systematic and regular supply of literature to the whole of the British Army. No application is necessary--a box or bale, varying in quantity according to the number of men, is sent out automatically about once every month or six weeks to every unit--however small--in every theatre of war. The scheme was originated by Colonel Sir Edward Ward, when making arrangements for the reception of the Overseas troops on Salisbury Plain. He then saw how necessary it was for the men to have books and magazines, and he asked the Hon. Mrs. Anstruther to assist him in forming libraries for the use of the men in their leisure hours, to relieve the monotony of the long evenings in isolated camps. From this comparatively small beginning the present system has grown up, and now every commanding officer can form a lending library of bound books for the use of his men, in every camp or regimental institute at home or abroad. These libraries of bound books are in addition to the bales of general literature which go out from the Camps Library to all units serving with the British Expeditionary Force, the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and the Indian Expeditionary Force. Each box or bale contains the greatest possible variety of literature, from a classic or standard novel to the most highly coloured penny novelette. Magazines and picture papers are always included--in fact, there is in each box sufficient variety to suit all tastes. Books and magazines are passed from unit to unit--till they literally fall to pieces, for the life of a book under war conditions cannot be a long one,--and the request for “more” is loud and persistent.