The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-12 00:00:00

MEDICAL MATTERS,

The correspondent of the Lancet inside the capital
notices the extensive practice of conservative surgery.
•
" Conservative surgery is having, in some instances at
least, a fair trial, and is doing wonders ; in fact, limbs
shattered by bullets are being saved in cases where, some
years ago anything but instant amputation would not have
been thought of. A considerable amount of dysentery,
rheumatism, fevers, and chest affections have arisen from
exposure of the troops in bivouac and in the testes d'abri.
There is very little disease, however, when we
consider the great fatigue our troops have
had to undergo, and the wet, inclement weather
we have had during the greater part of October.
Meat is now decidedly scarce ; butter and milk are
luxuries for the very wealthy, and eggs difficult to be had
and dear. The daily ration of beef or mutton now allowed
to each adult inhabitant is reduced to 35 grammes—that
is, about an ounce and a half, including bone, and in con-
sequence of imperfect arrangements there are many
who have been unable to obtain that little
scrap. The sick and wounded troops, except
hi the purely military hospitals, are insufficiently
supplied with meat, except, perhaps, in the American
ambulance and one or two others, where private energy
supplies what official routine fails to furnish. This state
Of affairs is injurious to the wounded themselves, and cal-
culated to give rise to ill-feeling among their effective com-
rades. It is, therefore, to be hoped that it will soon be
rectified. Great abuse had crept into the system of taking
the wounded off the field. It has been asserted that some
persons, who have established private hospitals in their
houses for selfish purposes, have actually paid money to
infirnziers for carrying wounded to their carriages near the
field of battle. This has now, it is hoped, been put a
stop to." •

The last bombardment of St. Cloud by the French ex-
tended over three days. All this firing cost the Germans
only one man killed and five wounded. As a discharge
from a big gun costs £l4, the French can hardly get their
money's worth.
It was stated by a Berlin correspondent that General
von Moltke expected to be home again soon. Such is not
the hope of some Saxon 'Officers who have just written
home. One says there will certainly be a winter
campaign. Another observes that " the wish for a
speedy, secure, and honourable peace is general among
the army."
The Nene Preuesische Zeitung announces that when the
bombardment of Paris does begin, it will open on all
sides, '• in order to occupy fully the force and attention of
the garrison, and divide them in every direction, so that
the moral impression of the attack may be felt generally
upon all sides, lest by the enormous extension of the
capital it might be entirely lost upon small quarters of
the city."
The outskirts of Paris are extensively mined. At Cour-
bevoie the system extends in all directions. Everyone is
warned not to smoke while going over the bridge—an
extreme piece of precaution, as the mine is said to be on
the island which the bridge traverses, and is covered,
moreover, with a wooden shed roofed in with earth; an
electric wire communicating with this will blow up
simply the one arch the moment such a step becomes
necessary.

At Arnouville, before Paris, some of the German officers
got up a fete champetre. A theatre was erected in the
open air, and patriotic plays were performed, spiced with
political allusions to the present war. Napoleon was
introduced as paying his addresses to the virgin Germania,
a damsel six feet high. Before she could reply to his offer
two grenades were lounched from St. Denis and exploded
near the spot, but everybody being accustomed to such
interruptions, the piece proceeded.
The reason why artillery did not arrive in time ,to
enable the French to hold Le Bourget was that though
the French general asked for a supply, he could not obtain
it. Says a " besieged resident," in vain Bellemare's
officers went here and there.. They were sent from pillar
to post, from one aged general to another, and at eleven
o'clock on the day when Bourget was taken, after the
troops had been driven out of it, the artillery, every
formality having been gone through, was on its way to
the village. It is pleasant, whilst one is cut off from the
outer world, to be reminded by these little traits of one's
native laud, its War Office and its Horse Guards.
The correspondent of the Globe takes a most unfavour-
able view of the food question in Paris.—" The rations
have long since been a mere mockery. They are not
worth the trouble of sending for—an ounce a day ; and
might much more reasonably have been suspended alto-
gether. They are only kept up as a pretext to meet an
outcry of the populace. The sick and the delicate have a
terrible time of it. Funerals are as common in the streets
as cabs. Once attacked by any lowering fever or disorder,
there is very little chance for you."