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This great stride forward in the technique of blood transfusion coincided so nearly with the beginning of the war that it seemed almost as if foreknowledge of the necessity for it in treating war wounds had stimulated research. Yet during the first two years of the war almost nothing was known in the British Army of its possibilities. I have no evidence that the French or German army doctors were any better informed than ourselves. Some attempt was made in 1916 to introduce the use of direct transfusion through cannulæ, but the technique was too difficult and uncertain for the stress of war conditions. It was not until 1917, when the British Army Medical Corps was being steadily reinforced with officers from the United States of America, that knowledge of blood transfusion began to be spread through the Armies. A conspicuous part was borne by Oswald Robertson in introducing the use of the citrate method, and to him a very large number of men indirectly owe their lives. In some armies the paraffined vessel of Kimpton and Brown remained the favourite method, but to me the citrate method seemed the more suitable, because of the certainty with which success could be attained, and the same view was taken by many others. At the same time the investigators appointed by the Medical Research Committee attempted to elucidate the problems connected with hæmorrhage and wound shock, and their results, as will be seen, served to confirm the estimate already being formed of the value of blood transfusion.