New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-01
Canada Plans for Disabled
Soldiers Lesson to i. S.
Dominion Advises Against Hystercal Sympathy for
Wounded Most Of Whom Can Be Restored to Civilian
Life as Self-Supporting Members of Society
from . Special Correspondent OF the Trbunsl

GERS. who recommend that he be dis
charged or that further medical or sur
gIcal treatment be given. II the lat
ter be decided upon By the examining
board the man is handed over 70 the
Military Hospitals Commission and
sent 20 one Of the institutions oper-
ated by the commission. He is not
given his discharge. but remains SOL
der. subject TO military discipline and
drawing the army pay. The men in
the care of the commission retain the
soldiers uniform during the entire Pc
Rod of their convalescence.
Controls FORTY Institutions
The commission has some forty in
stitutions under its direct control. and
uses, or has available, thirty-two others.
More than 1900 soldiers are under med
zeal treatment in the Dominion. A
factory has been constructed for the
commission at North Toronto for the
manufacture of artificial limbs for all
orthopadic cases in the Canadian ex
peditionary force, and it is planned to
keep in order and renew such artificial
limbs for the next forty years. An
orthopadic hospital is being operated
on the same site as tina limb factory.
1t has $50 beds, and is equipped TO give
the most approved treatment 10 Grip
pied soldiers for the whole of Canada.
Many difficult operations are per-
formed at this institution, which in
cludes on its staff specialists OF inter
national repute.
Men suffering from she'll shock are
being treated at Cobourg, Ont, in an
institution which is up 10 date in
equipment and administration. Insane
cascs-and there are only about eighty
among more than seventeen thousand
men who have returned from the front
will be cared for in a separate hos
pital. To date only twenty Canadian
soldiers have been blinded, and most OF
them are being treated in England.
Three are being trained in Canada.
Only very small number Of men have
contracted tuberculosis in the trenches,
and nearly one-half OF the total for the
Canadian army developed among men
who have never been overseas. All
such cases are being treated In sana-
toria. II is remarkable fact that only
small number of Canadian soldiers
have been totally incapacitated by
wounds. An institution comparable TO
a home for incurables has recently
been opened in Toronto, and less than
forty cases eligible for admission were
found among the 1900 or more re-
turned men. With the exception Of
perhaps $50 soldiers, or at most 200,
all the cases which haye come back
from the front can progress and be dis
charged with a fair chance Of making
their own living. As yet the Dominion
has only the one small permanent SOL
diers' home, with thirty-seven inmates.
II is recognized that, later or, there
Will have 10 be some provision for a
considerably larger number of such
men, as some of those discharged will
be failures, but the permanent home
does not offer a solution Of the injured
soldier problem.
Homes for ConvaIescents
The other institutions under the con-
troll of the Military Hospitals Commits
sion are for convalescents, of which
there are now more than 5000 in the
Dominion. Canada's experience proves
that 1t will not be necessary for the
United States to mobilize its hospitals.
The existing general hospitals in the
Dominion offered in the aggregate more
than LOO beds for returned soldiers.
and there has never been occasion to
use more than a small number of them.
accommodate
ton is required only to very limited
extent The people Of the United States
may prepare for invalided men on the
understanding that bed cases. except
amputatlon cases, cannot be brought
across the Atlantic under present cir
cumstances. The need will be for
large institutions, thoroughly equipped.
The men will be less lonesome than in
ba 81
ton will be much lower. and the work
OF rehabilitation can be carried on more
efficiently.
Oppose Homes in Cities
Those who have been working among
returned Canadian soldiers are almost
unanimous in recommending that CON
valescent homes should be established
elsewhere than in the cities. There has
been considerable controversy over this
question in Canada. and the natural
preference OF the soldiers themselves
is for the cities. It has been proved.
definitely proved, however. that in
homes located in rural districts. say
thirty or forty miles from the cities.
the period of convalescence is much
shorter than in urban homes. The men
need to be free from the artificial ex-
citement of city life, away from we'll
meaning sympathizers, who would
never let them forget that they are
wounded soldiers, and away from con-
ditions which make discipline difficult
20 maintain.
Vocational training is an important
rart of the Canadian governments ef-
forts to restore the returned men TO
position of productiveness and indus
trial usefulness. Such training. the or
ganization of which is in charge Of
special secretary. has two aspects
therapeutic and reeducational. In the
frs. it is considered as an aid 10 con
valcscence by keeping the men from
idleness and worry. The natural result
is the development of initiative and
5elf-confdence, which in many cases
has been undermined. The work of re-
education is intended primarily for
those men who are so disabled that
they cannot resume their former occu-
pntions. Glasses are being held at the
convalescent homes, and in a few cases
at technical schools. Attendance. while
not compulsory, is encouraged by the
limiting' of privileges during the
periods while classes are in progress.
Courses Of training are recommended
by officers of the Military Hospitals
Commission after considering the per-
scnal tastes of the soldier, his physical
condition and the probable market for
his product. One of the most interest
ing Of the new occupations is that of
artificial limb making. The commission
il training its own limb makers from
among the men who themselves were
manned in battle and are now wearing
artificial legs or arms. In connection
with amputation cases, the commission
is introducing the Amar system Of
functional reeducation, which has been
adopted in France, where It is produc-