The Portland daily press., 1900-07-12
HORRORS OF GLORY.
One of the Inevitable incidents of War
illustrated In South Africa.

Describing a field hospital at BlOemfOn-
tein, Mr.. Bnrdett Coutts, M. p, writes:
"With no further equipment than tv O
marques and a few bell tents, no addi-
tion of staff or anything else, there were
3l6 patients, of whom half were typhoids.
Their condition was aImostdndescribable.
The tents were bell tents such as were
mentioned in former letter as affording
sleeping accommodation for six to eight
orderlies when working and in sound
health. In many OF these tents there
were ten typhoid cases lying closely
packed together, the dying against the
cOnvalescent, the man in his crisis
pressed against the man fastening to it.
There was not room to step between
them. Think of this, you who know the
sort of nursing a typhoid patient re
quires. With no beds or mattresses, and
only forty two stretchers in the whole
hospital, it followed that 274 patients hal
to be on the earth. There was a great
scarcity of blankets and no patient could
have more than One with a water proof
sheet between his body and the ground.
The ground is as hard as stone and at
night the temperature falls to freezing
point. Besides other deficiencies which
cannot be described, there were no sheet
or pillow cases or pretense OF bed linen
of any kind, only the coarse rug grating
against the sensitive skin burning with
fever. The heat of these tents in the
midday sun was OverpOWering, their
0 doTs sickening. Men lay with their
faces covered with flies in black clusters,
too weak to raise a hand to brush them
of, trying In vain to dislOdge them by
painful tWitching of their features.
There was no one to do it for them. Sew
enteen Orderlies had come with or been
raised for the half section field hospital,
ten had been taken from it, the number
being made up from the bearer company;
but they had had other duties to perform
than brushing flies Off PATIENTS faces.
At night there were not enough attend
ants to prevent patients in the deliriOuS
stage from getting up and wandering
about the camp, half naked in the bitter
cold, In one tent, where four slept and
others lay with their eyes open and star
Ing, a case Of perfOTatiOn' was grOaning
out his life huddled against his neighbor
on the ground. Men had not only to see,
but often to feel others die.
1t was a sad and sickening spectacle,
this, which l describe exactly as my eyes
saw it, and without eXaggeratiOn or ex-
cuse. / leave it and other similar facts
IL LII D0 uSC6SSdIV 10 TelaU6 20 bQ6 con-
Slderat1On, not OF wives and mOtherS-We
Will put them out of sight-hut of hard
practical men, accustomed to the hos
pitfalls of the poor, of the medical profess
sion, of the great nursing community of
the whole British public, who at the mo-
ment when this sight was to be seen out
here were reading those comforting words
spoken at Calais on April 26, as an avant-
courier Of the speeches two days later at
the Reform club: Nothing that provision
could suggest or that money could pur-
| chase was wanting anywhere, The sup
ply was simply lavish-here everything
was sent up with the utmost prompti-
tude, and medical stores and comforts
were always on the spot
'We have hardly come yet to the ques-
t1On of local responsibility. Certainly in
the case of this particular field hospital it
did not lie with its chief medical officer.
who was an energetic, pa1nStaking mem
bcr of the r.. A. NJ c., working night
and day, never leaving his hospital and
sitting down each evening to its blue-pa-
per returns, after fourteen hours work
in tents. Yes, he said simply, as we
parted, we dO our best, but it makes
ones heart sick to look at them.
''Ihere is no need to pile on the agony,
but worse remains behind which must be
told. Therefore l will pass over an Incl
dental visit to the hospital after rain,
when many Of the patients-typhOid
had lncreased-Were to be seen lying
three inches deep in the mud, and come
to my last visit, four days ago, on my
way down to the front.
'These chief medical officers had been
changed; from reports this one was as
painstaking as the last. He told me that
at one time his patients had increased to
1876. Three hundred of these were ty-
phOids. The few trained orderlies had
been mostly taken away; in their places
We're twenty-five unframed and ignorant
priyates from an infantry regiment
most of whom were themselves sconval9-
scent, to do the whole of the nursing.
The medical staff remained ALWAYS at
three Let the manual throw its own
light on this. The patients here were
Within tWentyfOur OF the number (540)
allotted to a general hospital. A general
hospital has twenty medical men, seven
ty-eight trained nursing Orderlies, twen-
ty-seyen unframed privates, and nine
nurses. The sick require far more nurs-
ing and attention than the wounded; the
general hospitals at Cape Town, equipped
as above, were mostly occupied by
wounded. Here was this hospital, crowd
ed with typhoid, left to three doctors,
twenty live unframed privates, and no
nurses.
with one more incident, graver than
all the rest. the dark history of a field
hospital at BlOemfOntein must close On
the occasion OF my last visit the hospital
had Deen mostly emptied, as it was to
move on to more permanent hospital,
mile and half off. How were they
taken? They were lifted out OF their
tents and put into rough OX-WagOns-aIl
typhoids, and many OF them dangerously
ill-and then jolted across the veIdf,
which in this place is much broken by
spruits and guIlies. One case was a state
Of hsmorrhage when moved. The order
came to evacuate the hospital; the medi-
cal officer had no choice but to Obev: there
were no ambulances. In three days four
OF these twenty were dead men.
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