The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-23
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
NFORMATlON BUREAU
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
NERVES AND THE WAR.

and disorders Deen SuCH d dlSIAllS%
and alarming problem as they are in
this one. Nervous breakdowns, mad
ness. suicides, have occurred in such
amazing numbers as to suggest the
possibility that modren warfare IS not
the natural occupation of man, even
tho German.
Statistics show that 10 per cent of
the total Canadian casualties are a1V-
GUS disorders of one kind and an
other The percentage in the other
allied armies has not yet been cal
culated, but it is known to be run
ming extremely high. while the same
must be true of Austria and Ger
many. An American doctor VINO
worked with the Red Cross in Ger
many at the beginning of the war,
asserts that with every load of
wounded brought in from the firing
line there were many insane and psy-
choneurotics.
Nervous Disorders Unexpected.
With all its scientific preparation
for war, Germany had not antici-
pated any trouble with nerves. 1t
was a totally new problem, and one
for which no provision had been
made at all. The nervous cases were
sent to the base hospitals, along with
the surgical cases, and received scant
attention. They were of no interest
whatsoever to the surgeons, natural
:
with the provisions for other pa
tients. AS soon as possible they were
removed to the evacuation hospitals
or conValescent hOmeS-where they
were kept for a few weeks and then
sent back to the front. Within
short time they would be back in the
base hospitals again. This Red Cross
doctor says he knew of one case that
W ent thru this procedure three times
before it was discoyered that it was
useless to return him to the front.
Then, the government ordered a
psychiatrist stationed at every base
hospital to take care of such cases,
which greatly expedited matters. If
a man were insane, he was sent 10 an
institution; if merely feeble minded,
he was put on some simple duty in the
home guard; if a neUrotic, he was TAX
en- off the firing line, and if he turned
out to be a Stacker, able but unwilling
to fight. he was given hard labor about
the Qualifications or on the military
roads Thus, each case was treated
individually.
Classifying Tcmperaments.
What Germany learned at the be-
ginning of the war, OF course, every
other belligerentl earned too. 1t was
not long before France began to take
preventive measures by turning each
recruit over to a psychologist before
sending him to the front There was
not time enough to analyze the COM
pleXities of mans mind. So the
French psychologists divided the cases
| broadly into four groups-the gastro-
intestinal, muscular, nervous and re-
! spiratory. Duties entailing hardship
and prolonged physical strain were as
! signed to men classified as CASTRO
| intestinal cases; the muscular type
was assigned to hard work and con-
/ tinuous labor; while positions requir-
| ing quick thinking and extraordin
| airy spurts of energy were given to
men of the nervous group, and the
| respiratory individual was employed
| chiefly in the aviation corps.
! This is still the French classified
| ton, according to one physician who
! has lately retuCned from France, al
| though the examination of recruits
! falling into the nervous group is
much more careful than it was at
| first. And, even so. the French medi-
| cal corps is said to have need of every
psychiatrist it can get to treat the
| large number of nervous cases that
appear with every ambulance of
| wounded.
AS for Canada, the splendid system
| of military hospitals in that country
/ is due chiefly to its early encounter
/ with disordered nerves. When war
! first broke out, all was confusion in
| Canada. Canada had not anticipated
war. She had no army, no navy. no
munitions plants and no military hos
pitfalls to speak Of and all these things
| had to be created in a hurry. as was
the case in the United States. There
was no attempt to create any partic-
ular system until those first nervous
cases started coming in, and some
thing had to be done with them.
Canada's Model Methods.
Now Canada's method of handling
| its wounded is an example to the
whole world. When Canadian troops
are shipped back to be mended, they
! are at once examined by a board of
| biologists, which diagnoses their
| cases. A man afflicted with tubercu-
losis is not sent to the same hospital
/ with a man having a gun wound in his
left shoulder. He is send to tu-
] bercular sanitarium. The man with
the gun wound is sent to a surgical
| hospital. Insane soldiers are put in
charge of expert psychiatrists in the
military insane asyIums; feeble-mind-
! ed soldiers are educated; the blind
and crippled are re-educated, and
nervous disorders are taken care of
in special hospitals.
This is the first time that psychol-
ogy and psychiatry have entered the
field of war, or the first time that war
has entered the fields of psychology
wish to put it. Doubtless there was
insanity in past wars. Personal
memoirs of the Napoleonic wars. in
fact, prove it. But apparently little
attention was paid to the matter. Now
we are told. it is the brains behind
the guns rather than the guns them
selves that decide the issue. This
seems improbable. but if true. you car
easily comprehend how disastrous il
would be to have an insane man be-
hind a sun. He might be capable OF
any monstrous absurdity in a crisis
Z 11h a n
, ing it upon his own comrades instead
of the enemy or running away with i
there are many hideous possible
Z ties.
Why Men Go Insane.
, Yet how can the ordinary recruit
ing officer tell which men will &C
; mad in the midst of battle. and which
: will not He can't and that is WHARF