Connecticut western news., 1916-02-10
HOSPITALS AT THE FRONT
Mrs. Willard, of the Surgical Dressing
 Committee, Reports.

Mrs. Willard, of the Surgical Dressing
 Committee, Reports.
 Mrs. Mary Hatch Willard, Interna. tioual chairman of the Surgical Dress ings Committee, has sent very inter. estlng report of her recent visit to France to the Chairmen of the State sections and to the committees of the organ, zation on whose behalf she went
 abroad. The purpose of Mrs. Willard's
 trip was to investigate the conditions of the French hospitals and to consider
 the advisability of organizing distribut. ing bureaus in other belligerent coun- | tries. Her report tells of the lack of
 hospitals the meagrc equipment in such 1 volunteer hospitals Us there urs and the great need nt surgical supplies. In spite of the fact that the Government 1 hospitals at the front, are perfectly equipped and their enormous hangers
 ale hlied with "tuns of hospital sup. i plies, they are unable to accommodate
 the Il ousands of wounded men who
 daily pass through their doors on their
 way to the other hospitals further in
 thp rear.
 1 Volunteer organizations are doing
 thrlr best 10 establish more hospitals
 and clearing stations, using chateaus, villas private homes. hotels and educa. t,Dual convents for this purpose These
 institutions are under military control
 and receive "an allowance of forty
 cents day from the Government for
 each occupied bed" but otherwise, are
 entirely self supporting.
 ask sl.
 and byways" are the ones desperately in need, and more SO DOW than
 formerly, us the long duration of the
 war has exhausted their resources. "
 Mrs. Willard received letter from A
 Frenchwoman describing the condi. tions in one of these hospitals in which she is nurse. "When the Military Health Service decides to open a hospi.
 tai, wrote this nurse, "it appoints a physician, gives him an empty build. ing, a limited supply of medicines, an equipment for the infirmary, and says to him: Now, do the best you 3 cam
 About her own hospital, she says; When sixty seriously wounded men 7 arrived there were two beds and three 3 or four mattresses and only boxes of ] straw for the rest. You can we'll im-
 agine the misery. Little by little, charitable people brought what they B could, but the hospital is still badly in 9 need. The furniture in the operating ] room consists of some old cake and fruit ' boxes, few basins, two big kettles, one fish kettle. a stable bucket. One of the operating tables was formerly an old carpenter bench, and the other an
 old bed on which has been placed a
 plank. There are very few instruments and they of very old models. This hospital is not an exception,
 In the larger hospitals of Paris and ! Bordeaux, the unusual courage and hope r of he wounded greatly impresse Mrs. ) Willard. No matter how serious their
 wounds, they were always hopeful, I grateful for any kindness shown to p them, and eager to get back to the l front.
 The work of the Surgical Dressings e Committee has been most satisfactory. . Its distributing bureau at Bordeaux 3 has supplied over sixty hospitals in the
 south of France, while the Paris dis.
 ulbullhB puIeau has supplieut ch ielui'
 sition, two hundred hospitals in tho
 war zone. MT. David Willard, the . International Field secretary, is now I planning to establish new distributing V bureaus in England and Italy. @ This extension of the work will call . for increased vigor in this country on '. the part of the committee, and it cer. V tainly deserves the enthusiastic support s of the American people. They should y be willing to spare little of their pres s ent prosperity to help the suffering e thousands in the belligerent countries