The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-12-30
MANY FRENCH
DOCTORS ARE
VICTIMS WAR

uIUIImO VI " NH
Paris. Dec. 30.-Among the num-
berless stories Of war, there are some
| that merit notice and yet seem to At
in under ne headline. They are most
| ly of victims of war who fall by the
wayside, and they are forgotten in the
| more sounding news of the day.
Here are a few incomplete figures of
old, in the sanitary service of the
French army. 1t is q service that
reaches from the fighting front
| through all the successive lines of
ambulances and clearing hospitals
back to the rear, beyond hearing of
guns. Some time ago, there had al
ready been 2SS major doctors kill
ed at the front, 1,400 more had been
wounded land 500 had died of various
infections and diseases taken from the
wounded they were tending. This
does not include the subaltern troop
doctors, nor stretcher-bearers of bat
tlef1elds, nor men Of the field ambu-
lances. Among these the fatalities
have been so great that not even an
4
The Americans who have fallen in
Observation-Disclosures work alone approach
a full dozen. Infirmarians and or
derlies working in this field service
have also fallen victims to battle be-
yond counting. OF the pharmacy
men, who have to look out for ready
they were exposed at their posts to the
R,rSr i0I,t hox
wounded, and twenty-six have died
from their work in bringing back the
wounded to the rear. Yet these are
least exposed of all the service. Those
killed while evacuating wounded to
the rear often fell under German bonn
bardment of their ambulance or field
hospital, where they were deliberate
ly aimed at by long-distance guns.
The brief army citations of ordin-
airy doctors accompanying troops on
the field are full of pathos. "Mag
MEN, killed by shrapnel while going
the seventh time to the first line to
care for the wounded. Charles, kill
ed in the first line while bringing back
a wounded man to his ambulance. Jul
lien, killed after running five hun
dred yards under a shower of shell
to begin over his work Of taking up
and bringing back the wounded. Bon
homme, killed while crossing space
swept by shells to care for the wound
ed Maligne, killed while doing up
wounds hnder a German fusillade.
Henry Beauregard, killed by a shell
while taking care of wounded men on
the firing line"
Might Have Become Famous
So the enumeration goes = there
airy troop doctors. Many, perhaps
most of them, are young doctors, fresh
from their studies. A French writer
asks: How many Pasteurs or Claude
Bernards might there not have been
among them il they could have lived"
Among those already doing notewor-
thy work for the healing, even of
Americans, is DR.. Mellon. who once
cared for me, among others like my
self, at the mountain springs of eau
terets in the Pyrenees. At the front
from the first days of war, he has been
twice wounded, three times cited in the
army order with the highest rewards
and Legion of Honor-and last time
asphyxiated by the unforeseen advance
Of German deadly gases while he was
bending unmasked over the wound
ed. He has onceSmore escaped with
his life, but with lungs long in heal
ing-yet he is again at work for his
&C untry.
A few weeks ago, two young men
as like each other as two peas. and
wearing the same Belgian uniform.
passed back from Lyons in an auto up
toward the. bit of Belgium still left to
King Albert. They were returning
from a mission to arms factories on
the Loire They were the two broth
ers ySixte and Xavier of BourbOn-Par-
ma, and the new Empress of Austria
is their sister Their father, Duke
Robert, had twenty-one children by his
two maria es; and his eldest daugh-
ter died the heart-broken first wife
Of Gear" Ferdinand of Bulgaria.
Refused to Fight Against France
The Chateau of Chambord was the
Dukes property, and these two young
er princes were often there with their
father, who kept up the old royal
hunt. From the start, they refused to
have anything to do with Germans
making war on France, and took SER
vice in the Belgian army. Each wears
the French cross of war, which they
have won by bravery in the, common
fighting. The Bourbons Of Parma
had the possession of Chambord from
their grand uncle, the Count Of Cham
bord, who was the last pretender to
the French throne in direct descent
from Louis XIV. He is still known
to the few Legitimists left as Henry
the Fifth. The many Bourbon-Par
ma children, as a result of this war,
are torn asunder between Austria and
Italy, with one a nun in England.
,,.Chambord has been sequestrated be-
cause the present Duke is in Austria.
Whether the family will ever get back
the famous chateau, which was pre-
scented by popular subscription to the
Count Of Chambord as the miraculous
infant dauphin under Louis XVIII. is
another question:; but when I visited
it again in August last, I found it in
the hands of the 'sequester" of en-
envy property Austrian Empress Iii