The age-herald., 1900-01-10
MODERN SURGERY
 IN BRITISH ARMY
Prom the London Mail.

doing, of our soldiers at the front.
 We send them all out with our heartiest good-byes and the best of wishes, and those who are fortunate enough to escape the shell or bullets of the enemy will be prob ably welcomed back. paraded through the streets of London, with bands playing and banners flying.
 But how about those poor fellows who may be stricken down by the foe. and have to find their way hack to their relations and friends only through the hospitals or sick wards of our military medical department? They may not be able possibly to Dartici- pate in the joyous homecoming that awaits their more fortunate fighting chums, and have to drag their disabled limbs and phys ically weakened bodies to their own fire sides on discharge from some hospital or ship, only to miss the praise that is So lav- ishly bestowed on their fellow-comrades.
 Let Us follow wounded Tommy a little and learn a few things that are not gener- ally found in the letters of correspondents brmming over with general martial move- ments and deeds of personal valor. To do this we must keep in touch with him from the moment he loses his identity as a fighting unit at the front, follow him down by stretcher to the rear, thence per vessel to the stationary hospital at Wynberg, and from there till he is safely landed on Brit ish shore We must, in fact, lift that veil of uncertainty which seems, for a time at any rate, draw over the units career.
 If one is not in the medical service it is difficult to ascertain all that is going on in the sick wards but by the courtesy of bv we do occasionally become possessed of information that would be acceptable to the public, and by it's publicity do no harm whatever to the services concerned.
 For example, what would delight the English public more than to know some thing about the general hospital to which their wounded sons and brothers may be brought?
 So we pay visit and find No. General Hospital ito consist of number of brick and wooden built tenements occupying the ground formerly used by the Colonial Serv- ice as their old stationary hospital and barrack site. It Is located near Wynberg, about nine miles from Cape Town, fed by good, wholesome water from Table Mount ain. and surface-drained by natural de- clivlty running north-northwest by south southeast. The officers sick quarters-a lofty, well built wooden structure-occupies the main frontage tllis edifice being flanked on either side by dwellings of a less pre- ltentious character. Within lofty well ven- tilated and most comfortably equipped apartments the wounded officers appear quite jolly during their enforced brief de- oention. Most of them are convalescent, and two CT three quite fit to rejoin their regiments at the front On the left flank of these quarters are various wooden huts arranged in three nearly parallel rows, the wetisernmost being medical, the east ones surgical wards for Tommy's use.
 In the latter are many wounded men, most of them oonvalescent, but all seem happy and contented not a few bearing the impress of excellent health. After see- ing their wounds, nearly all caused by gum shot, the onlooker is struck by the clean,
 well-defined, small circular entrance ani exit the Mauser bullet makes. It produces a canal not much, if anything, larger than a good-sized goose-quill, and cuts its way
 through flesh and bone as neatly as an arohimedean drill would, leaving no ragged edges. It produces little local disturbance bad after-effects. Hence shock to the system and subsequent septicaemia are
 owing to the lessened destruction of soft parts and follow the track made by these missiles without doing irreparable injury would tax the dexterity of the most skill full and delicate anatomist that ever han dled a scalpel.
 One of the wounded at Wynberg is a typ ical example. The Mauser bullet entering at the lower part of his abdomen, evidently taking its course in a backward and up-
 ward and oblique direction, must have cut
 its way just below, and between the bifur-
 cation of the large descending aorta, (the
 great artery), then perforating the soft
 parts, pierced the bone and made its exit
 through the skin in the center of the right
 buttock. No important vessels seem to
 have been wounded, and the man is now
 convalescent
 Another extraordinary case Is that of Pri-
 vate -, who was shot completely through the head, the Mauser bullet entering the cranium on one side and emerging on the other. Not only in he living, but his wounds have healed without a check-a slightly restricted jaw movement, due to
 muscular paralysis, alone retarding his dis charge. In this instance the bullet entered | just in front of the left ear escaping the | temporal artery, took a forward and some | what downward course along the floor of | the skull, pierced the right maxillary | (cheek) bone, and emerged below the eye on | that side There results some facial disfg- | uremept but he sees, eats and sleeps we'll. | One may consider him a lucky fellow in l having exchanged the experience of cranial | perforation by an old Brown Bess for that | of a modern Mauser bullet.
 | The grit left in some of these fellows was | amply demonstrated by the following inci- | dent, which occurred during the inspection | on Tuesday last:
 | Another private had been shot through his | right foot and left arm; all the four wounds
 of entrance and exit. clean-cut by the same | kind of bullet, were healed. He was stand l ing to ''attention" at the foot of his bed | when the doctor approached him. and, after carefully surveying, inquired of him how he l was. "Quite well. Nothing wrong with me