The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-10 00:00:00

BUSY WORK FOR THE BURGEONS.

The surgical rapist, tra of the English Ambulance, Mere..
Barker and M'K eller, have fore ar.led to the Britieh Nrdicol
Journal. from Orleans, a first report of the professional
work 1.1 the ambulance since it has been at Orleans up to
November 26 When the Bavarian wounded were hande
over to the core of thin ambulance, about the middle of
imtober, they were In a large open engine-house, the weather
being fine, the nights soon Inlan to got very cli, and
the patients complained bitte ;no they were trans.
ferret' to the waltinprooms and offices of the station. Tee
rooms were lii adopted and overcrowded ; the bedding
could not be changed sufficiently; sod the water supply
Is bad ; so that Dr. Pratt, the chief of the amMt-
lance, and the surgical staff, have had great
Milan to contend with. Every scientific principle of cubic
apace and change of air was perforce violated. Never.
theleel, the moot valuit'de servizea have been rendered, and
the results t.f operations will bear comparison. Of 28
patients who have undergone great operation., including 18
amputation' of the thigh and els of the leg, 15 have been
saved. The femoral artery to, been tied auccessfully for
traumatic anemism. There are five patient, now con-
voleacent whose lungs had Nee traversed by bullets, and
conservative surgery is being employed, apparently with
success, In treating gunshot fractures of the thigh. A post-
script to the accompanying letter, which la dated Nov. 27,
and reached the idle,' if the Journal on December 3rd,
s :—" A tremendout fight Is hourly expected. We are
busy fitting up a church for two or three hundred beds. We
raped again to be overwhelmed with work." The ambulance
is completely provided for by the British National Society,
and ha. • staff of 11 surgeons anti dresaem, who have pre-
viously beenacilvely employed at Sedan.

M. GAMBETTA RATHER TOO SANGUINE!

.....
One of the Faris letters which has been picked up In the
Channel, having formed part of the cargo of the lost balloon,
contains a copy of a despatch from M. Gambetta to hi. Jules
Fevre, dated the 181,11 ult., in which a most sanguine view is
expressed of French prospects. M. Gambetta wrote -"The
most period dt order reigns throughout tile country, and our
military rmources begin now to he very satisfactory.
Besides the 21.4.000 men on the Loire, the culminating point
of which is Orleans, we snail have on the lat of December •
new army, perfectly armed, and well provide I, and com-
posed of 100,000 men. To this must be added 200,600 Darden
Mobiles, who will he ready to take the field at the axone date,
and form the second line. We occupy strongly Oricanson the
two bank. of the Loire, ready to resist vigrroualy any at act
Our success at Orleans has excited to the highest degree the
patriotic sentiments of the nation. Our preparatiousof defence
are being pushed on on all sides with a prodigious activity.
Europe has manifested, in consequence of our recent succe,s,
as much ii)mpathy as astonishment. filer doubt. as no the
existence of our forces are to-day dissipated. MU we know
from undeniaole authol by, as well as from foragn journals.
All the world agrees to acknowledge that our diplomatic
relations are considerably ameliorated. With raze excep-
tions, we bear no more mention made as to elections or an
semiotics. The refusal to permit Faris to he reproviatoned
has been unanimously Wanted and attrniuted to M. de Bin.
muck. Every one now secs that thia refusal le a stratagem
not only for reducing Pais by famine, but to give the Prus•
Man troops lately before Metz time to arrive and to keep in
check our army of the Loire.'

AN EXPLANATION!

Who Is General d'Aurelles de Paladine c Ile has so sud-
denly started into fame, an d has displayed such con/Tice, us
&obey In a sexton of terrible disaster, that some mystery has
gathered round his name. Indeed, a rumour has been 11)leg
ahout that his title Is only assumed, and conceals the lineal
designation which belongs to the member of a U yal house.
But, in reality, the General ie • French soldier, who has seen
hard service in the 1141, and has come out of his welhearned
retirement to organise the force, of his country. By birth he
Is an Auvergnat, and he Is a toeinher of an old Auvergne
House. At an early age he entered the army, and, in 1643,
he served in a c unpaign against Med ehliader, miler the
Onto d'eurnale, who was then ii,,vernor of Algeria. At that
tinle D'Aurelles was chef de Mb:talon of the tilth Infantry,
and he was deemed an excellent officer. lie had the reputa-
tion of being so strict a dtaciplinariei3, that, In the Km glish
service, he would have hem celled a martinet ; and his pas-
sion for or er, his craving for instant and exact obedience,
peculiarly qualified hied for hammering into shape the loose
nmos of Regulars and tirades Mobiles which was oholitled
with the name of the Army of the [Aro Ile found hie men
little better than a mob, mid he has made them into an army
which has proved almost a Match for the beet troops of
Pelona. the spirit or minty prevalent when heloon the

command he hal put down by iderlog the alternative ot
obedleuce or death ; and, be'ore Bring a shot at the Germans,
be shot down several score of his own men. General
d'Anrelles do Paladine hue In many ways a likeness to General
Trochu. Both are men of strong religious tendencies both
lived in rettreiront for years—the one unknown to everybody,
the other known only to strategists: and on the exertions of
both men depend the last hopes o France.