The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

MEDICAL NOTES ABOUT SEDAN.

A correspondent, writing from Sedan at the end of last
month, says the place affords one of the most ex-
traordinary sights imaginable. The town was full of
conquering Germans. The shops were open, and
business was going on, but the people were so utterly
cast down as to care little or nothing about any-
thing but their misfortunes. At the chief hotel,
the " Golden Cross," it was evident that they
did not care for customers, and would rather have been
without them. They affirmed that food was not pro-
curable, and our correspondent strongly suspected that a
beef-steak, which he was so fortunate as to secure,
was a piece of an old charger. The hotel was
neglected, filthy, and very odorous. An extra-
ordinary number of captured/ cannon (mostly rifled)
and mitrailleuses were to be seen. Many of the
cases under the care of Dr. Frank, scattered in detached
hospitals at Balon and Bazeilles, were of great interest in
a surgical point of view. The Prussian 'military medical
authorities had been in the habit of visiting the various
hospitals about Sedan at different times, and the process
of removing the wounded was taking place so actively that
they would all soon be evacuated. Sonie patients were sent
to Belgium, and others to Germany, yid Pont-h-Mousson.
Those who were pronounced by the surgeons as not likely
to recover from their wounds in less than three months
were allowed to go home. The Prussian. and French
surgeons did not appear to amalgamate together very
wall. The national hatred was too strong to be over-
come by any professional sympathy. The French
wounded, as might be anticipated, were the most de-
pressed, and the most desirous of getting away from the
hospitals, where they were mostly attended by foreign
surgeons, to their homes. On the other hand, the Ger-
mans naturally placed more reliance upon the medical
attendants, evinced less irritability under restraint, and a
greater desire to secure their own ultimate rocovery.
Lancet.

It is noticed that the proportion of wounded who die
in the French ambulances is about one in 8 ; whilst the
Prussian fatalities are in the much higher proportion of
one in five, though their ambulances are better organised.
The Boulogne correspondent of the Post says that Lord
Lyons keeps a sharp look-out for every opportunity of
bringing together Count Bismarck and the French
Government, with a view to peace preliminaries.
General Burnside, as the events of the past few days
have proved, is a great favourite with Count Bismarck.
This statesman is partial to Americans. He says,
" I like self-made men. It is the best sort of manufacture
in our race."

The Prussian generals have sent a demand to the Tours
Government for the surrender of all the prisoners made by
the Franc-tireurs, on the grouud that they do not recog-
nise them as regular soldiers. In case of refusal they
threaten to execute -an equal number of French citizens.
What will the Prussian generals ask next ? The Franc-
tireurs all wear a recognisable uniform.

During the time General Bourbaki remained in Brus-
sels he was hampered by numerous French visitors, who
questioned him about their relatives in Metz. The im-
pression they derived as to the state of the fortress was
not favourable.

A letter from the wife of the Duke of Nassau's equerry,
who is always with the Duke, says that nothing was
known of his Grace's death, which is reported to have
taken place a week before the letter was written. This,
however, scarcely suffices to disprove the story.
La France says that the peasants of the Argonne dis-
trict are completely cowed, and incapable of the least re-
sistance, but that those of the Vosges and of Alsace are in
a state of savage and resolute despair, which promises
bloody reprisals should an opportunity occur.
Among other neat transactions, the municipality of
Lyons ordered all priests to serve in the National Guard,
under penalty of three days' imprisonment. It is reported
that they sent an order to this effect to no less a person
than the Archbishop himself.

The Germans expelled from France are preparing
claims for compensation. The Bavarians alone estimate
their losses at 250,000. The Frenchmen who were in-
debted to these expelled Germans of course forgot to pay
their obligations.

The German women, says the Elberfeld Gazette, make
use of the post to send all sorts of presents to their hus-
bands, sons, and sweethearts. As letters are permitted
up to 16 ounces in weight, they enclose cigars, chocolate,
tea, and slippers. A pair of these last are sent in two
letters. It is said that one woman sent her husband a
flannel shirt in six pieces, and by six posts. The last
letter contained the left sleeve, with the needles and
thread for sewing the shirt together.
The Prussian journals state that the Prussian Ministry
has returne t to the scheme of recalling the former
Chamber of Deputies in an extraordinary session, and of
conforming to the Constitution in proceeding to new
elections. The date of these elections must be prior to
the 15th of November, when the present term of repre-
sentation expires. The Federal Parliament will be
convoked, it is said, before the meeting of the Prussian
Chambers.

A correspondent of the Vienna Presse managed to take
full observations of the defences of Havre, and to trans-
mit them in safety to his journal. Altogether the force
in the town musters from 11,000 to 12,000 infantry. The
works both by land and sea are very considerable, but an
enemy who might obtain possession of the heights of
Ingonville, would be master of the whole town. There
are many recruits in the place who are ruining their guns
by their unskilful firing.

A German labourer who had been forced to work inside
Metz, but had made his way out, gave a moderate and
apparently trustworthy account of the state of affairs
within the great fortress. He said there had been no
salt in the fortress for weeks. Meat was scarce, and only
horseflesh was to be had. The soldiers had been for some
weeks on half rations, the officers only getting beef. The
eading citizens might have wished Bazaine to surrender,
but they had perhaps become hopeful of the early arrival
of succour. This labourer said that nothing was known
within the fortress of the capture of Napoleon. The
same statement has come from various sources ; but as
Bazaine has had communication with the Republican
Government, it cannot now be correct.
According to the Gevaer Zeitung, many of the French
prisoners in Germany prefer remaining in captivity to
resuming service in the army. "It was lately made known
to the French prisoners at Mayence that two hundred and
forty Frenchmen were to be exchanged for an equal
number of Germans, and those who were desirous of
profiting by the opportunity were requested to come for-
ward. Strange to say, not a single man accepted the in-
vitation, so that the requisite number had to be chosen by
lot, and it could be plainly seen by the chap-fallen
countenances of such as were thus selected that liberty
was anything but welcome under the circumstances.
Many of them shed tears on parting with their comrades.'

The Cross Gazette admits that the Confederation must be
adapted to the new state of things. It proposes to transform
the Federal Council, which is composed of delegates of the
Confederate Sovereigns, into a Chamber of States, corres-
ponding with the federative character of the new Ger-
many. This assembly, which the Cross Gazette compares
to the American Senate, will represent at the same time
the views of the nation as a whole, and of individual
States.

An interesting exhibition is at present open to the
Berlin public, in the palace of Prince Frederic of the
Netherlands, Unter den Linden. It consists of 6,000
articles, elegant or useful, presented by patriotic manu-
facturers and merchants in this city, and designed to be
prizes in a lottery for the benefit of poor Landwehr
families. There are twenty valuable head prizes, 'one of
which is a beautiful rosewoad piano worth five hundred
thalers.

At Strasburg several convents, and one in particular,
were dreadfully injured by the bombardment. The
gardens were ploughed up with shot. The building of the
one which had suffered most was a ruin. Of glass not
one solitary fragment remained. Of window frames,
perhaps a dozen altogether here and there. Great gaps in
wall and roof and floor, the lower windows stuffed with
mattresses cut into rags by the iron storm. In one con-
vent four young girls were struck down by a shell, and
they now lie at the point of death.
Of, Bazaine's last sortie a German paper says :—" The
result of this battle, the severest and most important
which has taken place before Metz since the Ist Septem-
ber, is alas ! a negative one for both sides. Both have
lost many men without gaining any advantages. In the
peculiar position of our army, it is quite impossible to
follow up the victory by penetrating into the immediate
vicinity of the fortress. However bravely, therefore, the
attacks of the enemy may have been repulsed, the suc-
cesses gained cannot satisfy the victor. I have not ascer-
tained the exact amount of the losses. Ours alone must
amount to several hundreds."

An individual, who has lately arrived from Dantzig,
has furnished some sad details respecting the French
prisoners of war who are confined there. On the 10th of
October there were at Dantzig 63 officers of all ranks, who
had been made prisoners at the battles of Woerth, Mars-
la-Tour, and Gravelotte. The greater part of them were
wounded and in a state of great destitution. For a month
past the letters they had sent to France had not reached
their destination. They had not received any assistance
from the national subscription for the wounded. They
had read with great satisfaction in the French official
journal that their expenses would be paid them in Prussia
and had communicated on the subject with the French
Minister of War, but they had not received any reply to
their requests.

The correspondent of the Independance Beige, writing
from Versailles, refers to the melancholy fate which has
befallen two Prussian officers. Some weeks ago they went
for an excursion into the environs of Clermont, and were
never heard of afterwards, in spite of all the inquiries that
were made. On the occasion of a friendly negotiation
with the French commandant at Verdun, the Prussian
authorities inquired if these officers were prisoners within
the fortress. The commandant replied that, to his great
regret, he had learned that the officers had been killed in
a village where they had stopped to have their horses
shod, and were imprudent enough to go into a house to
take some wine. The peasants shut them in and killed
them. The commandant, on hearing of the sad affair sent
a detachment of soldiers to render the last honours to the
unfortunate officers.

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