This work is the field report of a French medical doctor serving in the Franco-Chinese war over Tonkin and Annam in the period 1884-1885. The book reports the conditions under which this war was fought in the plains and hills of North Vietnam and describes a number of skirmishes between French and Chinese troops. However, Dr Édouard Hocquard was much more than an army doctor of the first class, with the rank of major, actively engaged in caring for wounded soldiers, he was also a keen observer of the customs and beliefs of the Vietnamese. His attention was especially focused on social issues and the livelihood of the Vietnamese, but he was also a meticulous observer of natural history. Numerous splendid, and previously unpublished, plates of scenes of peace and war in the Vietnamese countryside and of picturesque towns make for a colorful and worthy addition to Dr Hocquard"s descriptions.