Norwich bulletin., 1918-06-22
STORIES OF THE WAR
Great Work of The Surgeons.
Correspondence of The Associate.

Correspondence of The Associated Press):
 Marvels are being performed by the surgeons attached to the various En- tente armies. By exercising their skill they have restored to the fighting strength. of the Allied nations each year since the beginning of the war, whole divisions of men who in other wars would have died of their wounds or would have been crippled for life.
 The recent gigantic battles. as the result Of which more wounded men than ever before have received surgical treatment within short space of time, have demonstrated the immense strides made not only in surgery but in the methods of removing the wounded from the battle fields and transporting them to hospitals. So effective is the cooperation between surgeons and physicians at the front and those at the hospitals in the rear that an immensely larger proportion of the wounded recover than was the case. at the beginning. of the war. Men whose legs or arms have been fractured by shells now are restored to their regiments in minimum of time. This is due mostly to the fact that they receive prompt antiseptic treatment and surgical attention which prevents blood poisoning and the stiffening of artiiulation. Their re- covery is rapid in the hospitals be- hind the lines where they can be treat ed under comfortable conditions far | from the nerve-racking sound of the guns,
 Soldiers have been inspired with confidence in the army surgeons in I the great battles around Verdun and
 in the great German offensive which began in March.
 | PromptneSS in the treatment of
 wounded men has been obtained by | segregating them in classes according | to the nature of their wounds This was not generally done at the begin ming of the war. The plan then in vogue was to erect large hospitals as
 near the fighting lines as possible, say | ten or twelve miles from the front, and | to send all cases there for treatment ] When big battles occurred these hos pitals were ovefcrowded and owing
 to the delay in operating there were
 many cases of gangrene, tetanus and ! other infections that resulted fatally The enemy did mot hesitate to bonn bard the hospitals either with the ar 1 tillery or from airplanes. Sometimes l a train-load of wounded men would arrive only to find all the. beds oc-
 cupied and that they must move or l to another hospital
 Most of this difficulty now has beer overcome. When wounded men reacF
 the first dressing station or field am. bulance they are divided into cate
 gories. Thos slightly wounded are rapidly dressed and sent to conva- lescent hospitals. Those crippled ars sent to crippled depots, Men who have been gassed go to special hospital: and those most dangerously wounded are transferred to hospitals nearby tC remain until they recover or die. Those suffering from severe but no
 dangerous wounds receive promp
 treatment in the advanced ambulance!
 where operations are performed ant
 wounds disinfected before the men ar,
 sent to permanent hospitals.
 By these divisions of the wounded
 into classes. it is asserted, that grea
 fapidity of surgical intervention i!
 achieved as each specialist deals onl. with cases needing his kind of skill
 Then the patient is removed to tn hospital at a distance of not nor : than a journey of ten or twelve hours where he receives attention from ano ) ther specialist working in close coop eration with his colleague in the ad
 vaneed ambulance
 This system of segregation 0 wounded and cooperation sf doctor is said to have produced marvellous re l suits.