HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1917-3-29, Page 6GREAT HOSPITALSystem ibe
An ingenious plan
hae.
n asbeen adopted
{YORK BY BRITISH f establishing these hospitals as far
DESCRIPTION OP HOSPITALS ON
'THE WESTERN FRONT.
Wonderful Organization at the Large
Casualty Clearing
Stations.
A correspondent of a London news-
paper sends the following description
of British hospital work on the west-
ern front:
When a man is wounded at the
front it is the work of the battalion
stretcher-bearers to get him down to
the battalion dressing station; , and
the heroism with which the stretcher-
bearers have worked has become a
commonplace. From the dressing sta-
tion he is passed on as quickly as pos-
sible, receiving only such immediate
attention as the nature of his injury
requires, to the field ambulance, and
thence to the casualty clearing sta-
tion, which is, in fact, a hospital of
considerable size.
Such hospital may have had at the
beginning of a battle a permanent
staff of about 100 persons, including,
besides the executive officers, six or
eight doctors, officers of the R. A.
M C as many nurses, and 80 order -
0
as possible, in pairs close together, so
that each in time of stress . can re-
lieve the °thee, In "peace" times,
such as prevail in the lulls between a
great advance, each hospital of a pair
takes patients on alternate days only,
so that on every second day neither
has any new cases coming in. At Asst
they take 'their eases in alternate
batches of 400, orderlies being sta-
tioned down the road to deflect the
motor ambulances as they come, to
one hospital or the other. So one
would be clearing out its batch of 400
while the other was receiving, and in
this way neither becomes impossibly
congested.
The station's responsibility for a
patient ends when he is duly deliver-
ed on the railway platform or at the
barge. There the Evacuating Medical
Officer steps in and sees that all are
properly entrained and started for a
base, where they are distributed to
their appropriate destination, whe-
they they go to England or are held
at the Base Hospital in France, as
"A," "T.B.," or "P.B.," which letters
meaa that a man is fit to be returned
to active service as speedily as pee-
sible, or that he must remain tempor-
arily at the base, to be examined once
a week, till adjudged fit for service, or
permanently at the base, when he will
be examined only once a month.
With our own wounded are, of
course, a number of Germans, who, it
EFFICIENT SYSTEM
OF THE RED CROSS
CENTRAL OFFICE IN LONDON A
WONDERFUL STOREHOUSE.
How the Great Red Cross Society
peals Effectively With a Vast
and Complete Task.
There is, to the ordinary mind, but
little romance with e connected thec
col-
lection and despatch of stores to the
various hospitals run by the Red Cross
Society, yet a walk through the long
corridor of their stores department, in
the heart of Pall Mall, London, opens
up vistas alluring in the extreme, says
London Answers,
Here, from all parts of the Empire,
come the gifts of large -hearted and
grateful people for the wounded, and
it is here that they are sorted, packed,
and valued, and sent out to the places
where they are most needed.
Every article received, be it a bed -
sock or an X-ray outfit, is classified,
and a value placed upon it, so that ac-
counts may be kept orderly, and the
amount required for the complete
maintenance of a hospital of so many
beds arrived at in a systematic way.
Universal Providers.
In the basement of the Pall Mall of -
lies. On to this staff were thrown is needless "to say, receive precisely flees—which are the Red Cross head-
during a period of 14 days, in the the same treatment and the same quarters—ladies may be seen every
case of one hospital, and with some care as our own men.
others it was the same, over 12,000
cases. which included, of course, many SCHOOI. LIFE AND SCHOOLS.
Germans. It is true that before the
14 days were up new doctors had ar- Greater Attention Must be Paid To
rived, and the number of officers at- Making Schools Attractive.
tached has now been more than doub-
led. But in the first few days of the Impressions made upon the young
rush it can bo guessed what the work mind are lasting, This is especially have been dealt with in two weeks re-
eves. The doctors, the nurses, the or- the case in school life. Psychologists eentiy will be gained if you will try
to comprehend what the following list
comprises: 1,200 stretchers, 2,600
pairs of slippers, 10,000 handkerchiefs,
500 X-ray outfits, 5,000 pairs pyjamas,
5,000 wool- helmets, 12,000 pairs heel -
pads, 600 operating gowns, 1,200 bed-
rests, and thousands of shirts special-
lysociated with his school fellows and constructed for helpless cases;
memory offsets any deleteriousowd toothbrushes and tooth -powders, en-
thist which an unattractive eroos amelled drinking mugs, shaving sticks,
rubber gloves (all of one particular
may have caused. size), hairbrushes, feeding -cups, and a
the object kept always in view is to According to a recent survey of edu- poet of other things.
evacuate the patients as rapidly as rational conditions in the county of
possible. Dundee, Ont., by the Commission of Fabulous Figures.
p Conservation, 98 per cent. of 400 farm -
Smooth, Quick Work. And these huge numbers are by no
ers and 92 per cent. of their wives at- means representative of the enormous
Only necessary operations are per- tended public school only. Their edu-' amount of stuff sent out from London.
formed. Roughly it may be said that cation, therefore, must have been cum -1
these include all cases of severe ab -i They are simply tel the oand asked
feted at an earl
age.
Thus the!
Y gal
purgenttelegram only, in
dominai injuries. Wounds in the chestn fors t gdespatched1
are generally kept here, dressed and schoimprossur crdings u the}r puibly;sases they the been kedfor. the
put to bed,until the wound settles school surroundings must be indelibly ;same clay as they were asked for.
written upon their minds and remain i Only once has the Red Cross been
down before being sent forward for there during life. Every consider- • caught napping, and that was when a
operation. A few head wounds only ation, civic and individual, renders it requisition for 10,000 "comfort bags"
have surgical treatment, the doctrine essential, therefore, that school condi-1--which are the small receptacles for
being that it is after the operation tions he made agreeable and that the Tommy's personal belongings, sup -
that rest and quiet are essential, and teacher be suitable to the work.' plied to each patient ---came in. But
there is less risk, except in the case (;rater attention must be paid to
of very s,•vere injuries, in sending the makingour schools attractive to bringwithinllet dtand
hours these ontd been
patient oft by barge to the place the scholars to them, and make life colMerelected and senta off to the Continent.
where he can finally rest than there ; pleasant fax them while there. We ofigures cannot tell the roman -
where
is in operating at once. and having to fare continually urging greater and work, story of overte}s 1,000,t 00 Red Cross
move him afterwards. ' higher educational facilities fax our hut $1,000,000 has been
day making up consignments of drugs
and bandages, or counting socks and
hospital suits, slippers, and shirts, in
order that there may be written across
each and every requisition at the
shortest possible notice the words:
"These goods have been despatched."
An idea of the urgent'orders which
derlies worked until literally they fell
asleep in the few seconds of waiting
between one case and another,
The hospital nominally has 200 beds,
being "capable of expansion." It had
800 beds in use for a night, but only
for a night; and the day that I was
there it bad 122. It is in tents, which
accounts for its capacity for "expan-
sion," and is situated near a railway,
where there is a train of Red Cross
carriages constantly in waiting. And
agree that, tmtt
old; boys are entirely taken up with
their own interests and have not begun
to recognize the need of group efforts.
It is, therefore, in the early age that
the child forms his individual opinion
of the school and teacher. In later
life his interests become more as -
Lbs the rest, the first essential is children, hut are we making the best is the instores, theag about $ved. One
to have an abundance of dressing use of existing opportunities? A is the value dgifts of goods One
tents, all r1;.istr•r'si round the operat- prime requisite to this end is in- hundred thousand cases 't goods have
been despatrhecl to hospitals beth at
ing room_. 1 was at one of these sta-
tions on 0 day when the stream of
wounded was at its worst. and it was
an impre+nice tbieg to see the rapid-
ity and smoothness with which the
work went on, the, petierts being laid,
screened a? wall as could he from the
suet, on stretcher= nn the groan(' be-
fore each dressing tent, having only
a short wait before. their turf; came to
pass into .he silt et interior, to be
examined and dee. eed sed to p t .; out
at the other Side, They are cleaned
and comforted and fed, all their be-
longings and cquti,,n?•}t a,•^ taken
from them, and within. generally, two
or three hours of their arrival they
are borne, dressed only in pyjamas or
in their shirts and troueere, as their
wounds may permit, to the train 01
the barge to be taken with al? nOeeihle
care to the hast.
There is a eomplet,•• ey.stem of re-
cords and of labelling each ease:, r,n
cards fastened to the patient's eb,th-
ing, which begins at the regimental
dressing station and is conl.inued and
elaborated at each stepping place on
the way down. All the things which
are taken from the men, not, of
course, including their valuables and
small personal properties; which tra-
vel with them, are turned into the
"pack store," end are Also systematic-
ally evaeuuted and scat clown to head-
quarters.
itiative on the part of the teacher. In home and abroad, and over two mil-
. his or her hands much needed improve- lion garments supplied.
ment can he made in building and here are just a few instances of the
grounds. Any expense entailed can universal character of Iced Cross ,
,e cel-
lection from the parents, through Inc I
medium of some form of entertain-
ment, and it is not hard to arouse the
enthusiasm of the pupils in such un-
dei•takings.
In most country wheels there is the
nucleus of a good school. With a the staff were supposed to have de -
progressive teacher, the necessary im- parted --far a complete outfit for an
provement to the surroundings could emergency hospital was completed be -
lee made at minimum east, and condi" fore dawn next morning. Four hours
Cons created which would provtde was all the time taken to nolle t nd
readily ]y 1 secured, if not by direct c•t: ;.tures.
Puddings and 1'ianolas.
One hospital asked for a_ kitchen
outfit to feed 100 men; the apparatus
was despatched in eight hour:•. An or-
der received late in the evening --after
e
memories of his seined and his teacher
throughout the pupil's later life.
Measuring the Wind.
c, a
despatch a complete plumber'., shop
to Calais.
Last Christmas a demand for 800
Christmas -puddings and 120 turkeys
The speed of the wind is measured was receiver] at midnight,- and, al-
' by mean, of an ingeniuu:e instrument though the turkeys had to be purchae-
ralle+l the anemometer. It is like a ed and the puddings ramie, the order
weather vane, with (.ups instead of was compieted during the following
letters at the ends of , arms. The afternoon.
it
cups, eatching the wind, spin round, tZuec' ,fumble come in on therequi-
and thus turn the central shaft. This 'itions, and it hi quite a romance to
be -
passes down into a box in xhirlr are t'ea'l through the cables that are be -
several dials. The indicatoe: of lore constantly received One in par -
those dials are connected with the titular, recently received front bast
shaft, and move according to its re- Afi•tea, milted for pillows, pencils,
volutions. Thus the number of re- .playing -cards, calve°' -foot jelly, niu-
vuhntions of the cup i, a certain sac -rolls for pianola:, an ice -making
time gives the e:aet :peril in miles plant, and ti soda-oat°i• machine.
At S151,411111 the troops of the Allies
Fl
.Q131021:31CaCIFICKICIECK=FgrnignSCROLM.anom.. 41111.411aal KM, .11,1•Z 1111.4,101.
eilettirarle4e
9fie blends:
NEW CANAIAN WAR LOAN
The Safest and Best Investment
Possible to Obtain.
These securities are always sale-
able and we are ready to purch-
ase at any time.
Without charge we give best at-
tention to all applications
placed through us.
Fall particulars and Subscription
Forms furnished on Application
Write, Telegraph or Telephone
us at our expense.
W. A. Mackenzie & Co.
TORONTO
WINNIPEG
have but little to assist them in the
way of recreation, and games are sent
out in thousands. Two dozen portable
harmoniums have been sent out in an-
swer to an appeal made by Army
chaplains for music for their services
—a gift which, while not strictly with-
in the scope of the Red Cross, is
greatly appreciated by the Tommies.
Egypt is a peculiar country, and pe-
culiar demands come from it at times.
For instance, silent punkas to keep the
air moving in the hospital wards,
toothstielcs dear to the hearts of our
gallant Indian troops, "sparklets" and
soda -water machines for making cool-
ing drinks—all these are asked for and
sent.
There are some hospital launches at
work on the Tigris, and difficulty was
found in getting fuel for their use.
Pall Mall immediately rose to the em-
ergency, and sent out 200 tons of pat-
ent fuel in blocks, thus enabling the
launches to carry on their merciful
work at full speed.
Gardening Tools for Flanders.
An aspect of this work that has not
as yet coma to the notice of the public
is the supply of weed -killer for clear-
ing the graves of our heroes who have
fallen "out yonder." Not only did the
Red Cross Society send out weedkill-
er to Flanders, but they also improved
on the order, and added a complete set
of garden tools—rakes, hoes, spades!
and forks—so that the last resting -
places of the gallant dead should not
be neglected.
Latterly, too, 50,000 young vegetable
plants have been supplied to the Con-
tinent, These are planted around the
various rest camps, hospitals, and con-
valescent stations, and not only do
'they provide a constant supply of
fresh vegetables for the sick and
wounded, but they provide a means of
recreation for those patients who are
able to get about, and upon whose i
hands time hangs all too heavily after
their strenuous labors in the firing -
line.
Mesopotamia demanded 20,000 yards
of wire gauze -netting to keep the sand
flies and mosquitoes from further add-
ing to the misery of wounded men. AR
newspaper readers will know, these
flies are a terrible pest out in that far
country. In order to fill this order, it
was necessary to scour all England,
and it speaks volumes for the efficient'
organization of the Red Cross stores
department that this quantity was dis-
covered, bought, and despatched with-
in two days. As a matter of fact,
they purchased every inch of the net-
ting they could, and ]eft England com-
pletely out of stock,
But the sick and the wounded are
Ian hour.
:*, f, . aCagrat- ,af.;;n ilMa,....,-n.,:. + ,,.,aa,x. .-mom _ -., .. _._..a.tal,aan,mm..® aaMaan rte.
Go0DN; S - IT's FIVE MINUTES
AFTER. savag— 'we. WILL
NAVE. •1'o NURR'l AND cit r
DRESSED IF weNte cicll46
a -ro TFU1 .r E4:.
t1ELEt3 "IoVR,S VJttoNl•—
11-'6 OONO`i 431x FoR.rY-
1 FIVE — i-oo(( RA.
1,114
✓ 11414
not the whole of the Red Crosscase;
they look after the weUare of our
prisoners also. This part of their
work originally commenced by the
sending of Christmas parcels, but it
was soon realized that Christmas was
not the only time parcels were requir-
ed, and that the prisoners of war were
short of many things which were
sheer necessaries.
Bread, tinned meat, jam, tea; milk,
sugar, cheese, dripping, even soap,
were all needed, and many are the let-
ters of appreciation and thanks for
parcels received daily from men who
hail been unfortunate enough to fall
into enemy hands.
Good Advice.
The grammar school principal went
from room to room explaining what to
do in case of fire. The pupils listen-
ed with respectful attention until he
came to his final instructions, then
seniles and giggles disturbed the prin-
cipal's serenity.
"Above all things," he said, "if your
clothing catches fire, remain cool,"
As a substitute for the door mat
there has been invented a device pro-
vided with horizontal brushers to re-
en'Cve dust from the soles and tops of
shoes and the bottom of trousers as
well .
��d2oNr — res JUST
TSN o'Ci-ocK
113 -t'I4E. .11AN INca
NEWS FROM ENGLAND
lOFW. kY MAIL ' Alloy', %CMS
BULL AND SIS PEOPLIL
Occerrencee to the Land That Itelgatr
Supreme la the Connect,
dal World.
Ovet• X800,000 have boon spent by
the Works Office on the Woolwich
housing scheme.
Two Germans who escaped from
Havre, have been arrested on an Am-
erican ship at Barry:
The
ar y -
The Army Council is calling ur-
gently for 1,000 women to enlist as
cooks and waitresses.
The Duke of Sutherland has decid-
ed to sell his Shropshire estate, con-
sisting of about 7,600 aeree.
The Town of Willesden is paying
120,000 a year or a sixpence rate for
war pay and war bonuses.
A party of twenty women carpen-
ters left Charing Cross last week for
France to assist in the building of
soldiers' huts.
A Municipal Day Nursery for the
children of munition workers has
been established by the Stoke New-
ington Council.
Jamaica, Dominica, Trinidad, Bri-
tish Guiana and the West Indies have
each contributed an aeroplane to the
British Royal Air Fleet.
At the home of Jas. and Percy
Clay, Neath, the materials for forg-
ing Treasury notes were found. They
were sent down for trial.
Albert Taylor, a conscientious ob-
jector and peace and labor candidate
for Rossendale, has been given four-
teen days' notice to enlist.
At the Pembrokeshire Assizes, Mr.
Justice Bailhache suggested the aural-
gamation of counties far assize pur-
poses to save expense.
The 106th anniversary of the birth
of Charles Dickens was commemorat-
ed in Westminster Abbey recently,
CANADA AN INVITING FIELD.
Investors in United States Give Can.
adieu Bonds First Place,
The Wall Street Journal of New
York says: To speak of the high esti-
mate placed. here on the worth and
credit of Canadian bond issues, is to
repeat a thrice -told tale, but one al-
ways of new interest and instructive.
Comparing population with area, and
then with undeveloped resources, and
then with developed producing and
manufacturing forces, with banking
capital and deposits, with domestic
and foreign trade expansion and
growth, the results are remnarkable.
Add to these results the economic se•
curity of unsurpassed thrift, frugal-
ity and industry among all classes°
and we have a fundamental reason for
the high credit basis of Canadian war
loans here.
Canada's nation debt at the begin-
.ing of the year stood at $745,000,000,
mi increase of some $400,000,000 since
1914, some might say a large debt for
7,000,000 people.
In 1916 primary production, despite
tan unexpected crop shortage in grain
and vegetables, stood at $1,241,000,-
000 and manufacturing production at
close to $2,000,000,000. As often stat-
ed, three of Canada's western pro-
vinces in 1916-16 produced more new
I wealth than her present national debt,
I and approximately three times the
amount of purely war financing to
date. The purchasing power of her
own people from their savings of the
last two and a half years has increas-
ed faster than the well-planned and
judicious financing of the Government
has found it necessary to call on it.
- Extraordinary conditions gave the
;opportunity to reverse a traditionally
'unfavorable trade balance, and that
opportunity has been promptly availed
of and a large export balance is being
built up, though the country hue been
on an actual war footing and etmtri-
buting without stint in men, money
and munitions.
United States investnt;eats 111 Can-
ada at the close of 1916 were estimated
to amount to $1,039,000,000, of which
$525,000,000 was in nubile and private
bonds --covering an investment period
of eleven years.
It lute been pointed o of that our 1015
and 1910 investments :how rapid •eer-
centage 111c1•eaee over those of other
countries. There has been a bre -.dol-
ing of interest in Canadian invest-
ments, but our purchases have not ex-
ceeded proportionately our incrceeing
inter -trade, Total inter -trade exports
and imports for 1016 were $840,644,•
000 compared with $5:li1,0'-'O,0ilI) for
1913, Trade balance stood $8011,109,.
000 in our favor at the first of thii
year; and for the last four years to'
gether we have sold t anadu $078,•
021,000 more in commodities then we
have bought from ;tee Canticle had
not only provided for this indebted-
ness, but has done it while paying a
roneirlerelle liars of her war expc•tull-
tures out of current income.
Whether we take up $30,000,000 of
have the opportunity to subscribe td
a much larger amount, it is 110 er:ag-
geration to say that no loan to he of-
fered here will be more popular et
more easily absorbed,
Satisfactory to Iter.
Pa --I greatly disapprove of that
young Smithson, and one particular
reason is his lack of industry in his
calling.
Daughter --leis calling? Why, papa,
he 08118 seven evenings ia, the wsek1