Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-05-16
FRENCH PREPARE
FOR NEWCOMERS
TO HOSPITALS
Old Patients Are Being Gotten
Out Of Way as Rapidly as
Possible to Make Room for
New Ones Expected,

London. May 5.--France has for
several weeks been clearing hundreds
OF It's more accessible hospitals of pa
tients in order 20 provide for the
heavy casualties OF the new offensive
movements. Sick ana wounded have
been removed 10 crossroads villages
and 10 hospitals in the country im-
provised from former monasteries and
|convents. Although already crowded,
beds are added 10 every hospital In
order to Increase the capacity. The
plan Is 10 have the base hospitals and
all those On the main railway lines
ready TO care for the newly wounded.
IN the early months of the war much
OF the loss OF life and limb was due
10 gangrene resulting from slow
transportation.
A report describing Frances prep
arations for the new rush Of wounded
and the difficult problems with which
her hospitals are already confronted
has been laid before the French
wounded emergency fund by Miss
Daisy Polk OF San Francisco, who re-
GENTLY toured Brittany with Mrs
Partridge Klots. formerly of Balti-
more. In the Breton section OF
France. Miss Polk and Mrs. Klots
delivered supplies TO l42 hospitals, Of
which they personally Inspected nine
ty-two. These supplies came in large
part from American contributors.
Primitive Methods Found.
French provincial hospitals, Miss
POLK found, are poorly equipped as
whole. some as primitive as one
would expect In Serbia. France failed
10 anticipate the war by storing sup
al IL
tails Her energies for n time were
concentrated on the military end. Sur
gical instruments. drugs and antisep-
tics fell far short OF the demand,
Trained nurses were few When
thousands Of wounded began TO ar
rive from the front daily. their hous-
Ing and care naturally had to be done
In rough emergency fashion. Condi-
lions. have now greatly improved, yet
there Is not a village In France with
out It's quota Of convalescents.
The hospitals OF Brittany. Miss Polk
found often badly furnished and over
crowded In the village Of Quimper
she visited a hospital without either
gas or running water. without chairs
and without the necessary operating
equipment. The operating table was
Of plain wood, and the sterilizing had
10 be done, as In many of the French
hospitals by many improvlsed ovens.
When patients arrived after dark,
wounds were dressed and emergency
operations done by candle light.
Mattresses on Boards.
In one hospital at Brest, the beds
were merely mattresses on boards. In
another a windowless attic badly ven
tilated through Its skylights, con-
tained seyenty.fivc beds. There were
In all 5000 beds in Brest. but all
patients who could be moved were
sent away and thousand beds were
added for the spring quota OF
wounded.
The shortage In anesthetics and
antiseptics has now been overcome,
but the lack Of instruments is still ses
riously felt. Miss Polk took deserip-
tive catalogue OF instruments on her
tour and made notes of the needs Of
various hospitals This need was Of
ten filled Immediately by the supplies
distributed. Pillows, blankets, hos
pital clothes. sterilized cotton ana
bandages from the emergency fund
have been god sends. In many places
even the cotton had run out, and
dressings OF coarse towel were used,
| WuHHeu ana ustu dkdiHs ottIlHatu dp-
sorbent cotton Is a rarity In all the
French hospitals, and cotton batting
IL ordinarily used
Trained nurses were few In the
learly part Of the war, apart from the
Sisters OF Mercy, as France has no
training system corresponding with
the English or American. But
French women, even of the highest
lsociety. have worked with great de-
votion, doing the most mental tasks
while men and women nurses have
been hastily trained TO supplement the
sisters Nuns banished by the
church separation act have also been
called back from exile. The nurses
st the village OF Broons were recalled
from the Island OF Jersey,
Miss Folk says the cheerfulness and
patience of the French wounded sur
passed belief, They are as easily
handled as children. Miss Polk saw
one man who had been In eight hos
pitfalls and undergone five operations
during the past three months. yet he
seemed cheerful and eontentsd. al
1 though he still had some unexfractcd