El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-04-08
BY CAPT. Z. y. BENNETT.
Commissioner in Servia for the British
ned Cross Society,".

leu NNNsN EuNANAsa
FISH, servia, April S.-Here is the
N picture Of an Austrian prisoners
i camp This is not a hos
pital, remember. but simply an
area where $50 Austrians have
been collected. NevertheIess disease
nave fallen like blight upon the
camp At an earlier date one doctor
was IN charge Of this camp, but he is
now struck down by typhus. Typhus
dysentery, smallpox, diphtheria, have
swept over the place. Last week only
20 men out Of $50 could stand on their
feet
They lie in utter wretchedness. The
bulk Of the sick men are stretched out
on the muddy ground. Their clothes
which spread the deadly typhus. The
silence of the camp is broken only by
signs and groans, but when a stranger
comes in sight the sick raise themselves
on their elbows, If they can, and cry
pitifully, For the 10 e Of God, give US
water"
Dead and Dying Lie in Heaps.
A recent visitor noticed a number y
recumbent forms covered with great
coats and found, on removing these,
that five out OF the number were al
ready dead and had been dead for sew
eral days There was nobody to re-
move the cOrpses. Here and there some
poor wretch crawled on his hands and
knees to fetch cup Of water to a pros
trate cOmrade. This was all the at
tendance" which was visible. and the
shocking condition of the men and the
ground on which they lie can be I'M
agined.
Can anyone be surprised to learn that
some so men die in this camp every
Task Was Too Great.
Here is an English hospital which has
tried to do the impossible and failed.
Six doctors and Il orderlies-they had
no nurses-tOok over the control of
fought a gallant fight against terrific
odds, but typhus has beaten them. At
this moment two orderlies are dead,
three have been invaided home, and
three are now laid low by typhus; two
doctors are suffering from the same
disease and one has gone home. Three
doctors and three orderlies are all that
remain on the active list, and the work
of the hospital has had perforce 10 De
temporarily abandoned What could
six doctors do with 1900 men2
Worse still are the conditions under
which the Servian doctors have labOred-
The poor Austrian prisoners, the only
assistants the doctors have. there are
no Servian nurses. do their best, but
thew are not trained Orderlies- Take
large Servian hospital which I know
It is practically impossible to 90 near
it, so overpOWerinE is the stencil IN the
street outside that nobody who is not
compelled to approach the building can
bear TO be in its vicinity.
Details of the interior cannot well be
printed but may be cOn1ectured when
one mentions that foul rags and dress
fnss and even portions Of amputated
limbs are thrown over a wall and LETT
TO the attention of crows and magpies
and parish dogs Similar refuse has
been thrown into the river
SiUty-three Doctors Die.
Since the announcement Of the war
Sc Servian doctors have died in the
course Of their unequal struggle with
disease. One young man Of 3 years,
medical student has died within
stones throw Of my window Two
British nurses volunteered 10 nurse
him. but it was too late Before their
arrival. he was nursed by nobody except
a little Servian maidservant and last
Friday night he escaped in delirlu UNI
there was nobody to look after him
and was later found lying on the muddy
road in the bitter cold
So terrible have been the results OF
this overcroWding that II seems doubt
full whether in the long run more lives
may not be lost than gained Z = attempt
ing the impossible. Had hospitals now
containing 800 men refused admission
to more than 100 and taken every pre-
caution that experience and science
furnished against dirt and vermtn and
polluted air. the results actually
achieved by medical effort might nave
been better But what of the 200 men
excluded? No man, doctor or layman,
can leave a helpless soldier lying IN the