The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-29
PHILADELPHIA Record)

On the face Of it, to you, who may
pause casually on your tour of in
spection of the huge base hospital
here, the case might present no eX-
ceptional interest.
One of the many victims of the high
explosives, shrapnel or other wound
dealing devices of the Hun, gallant
young George Spletzer, of Beryan, O.,
lies upon what looks like q four-poster
bed
Along the posts runs a supporting
frame, and from the frame there runs
a stout rope. At the end of the rope
is a metal sling, or container, and in
that iron stirrup the wounded soldier
rests his limbs. 1t looks almost like
some childish toy, a thing conttived
to keep this Yank amused during his
Convalescence here, until you under
stand that the plucky soldier will have
to keep that position in his bed for
exactly two months, and perhaps
more, that the shattered nerves may
join.
You, sick abed with an illness Who'll
ly elsewhere than in your limbs, know
how fretful one gets when keeping
placed, so there and here, the uncom-
planning young fellow feels shooting
pains every moment or so, the first
indication that nerve regeneration is
setting in, that the nerves which
were shattered and whose ends were
operated on here are working their
way to meet, end with end.
When they do; when finally, the
surgeons see fit to release the young
man, whose nerves will, so far as
practical purposes go, be Joined as
thus rest in the cap of Captain L. S.
Brockhart, of the base hospital here,
| for performing the almost superhuman
| feat of actually mending torn nerves.
! Delicate work!
Hark back, if you will, to your dis
! trict school physiology; recollect what
you learned Of the nerves and how
very, very fine they are; how super
sensitive each to very faintcst stimu-
/ Iii, or interference from without; and
then fancy a big human hand attempt
ing to mend the severed telegraph
/ lines Of tho body and get the messages
to run freely, place to place!
Making Good the Pledge.
Uncle Sam. however, gave his
pledge. at the start OF the late world
war, that every man should be return
ed homo. if alive, IS near whole as
science might make him, and I'd at
Camp Sherman the captain and his
corps Of experts arc doing their best
to make good the pledge.
Many and varied the wounds in
CURED i battle: none. however, more
frequent than those which cut in twain
| the nerves. Tho very largest number
/ of such injuries, the Camp Sherman
experts tell US. occur in the great
sciatic and in the medal or nerve of
the arm Notably with gunshot
wounds these are the vast majority,
Not alone does the shot pierce the
nerve. but, by the time such patient
may reach camp, far overseas here,
/ scar-tissue will have formed. and be
pressing, COMPRISING, the nerve in
the course Of it's contraction.
Again, a bullet passing squarely
through a nerve may have carried
other matter along in its wake. and
this causes complications here.
Not a True Healing
In fact, according to the doctors at
; camp, where nerves are only partly di
vided, or where sundered. the vast per
cent. of wounds become spetic long be
fore the men reach their care. Long
suppuration, or discharge accompanies
SuCn WOuuuS lAeu, SCdT-LlSSu0 lOImS
in the shattered nerve. The scaI
which is formed, however, is not a
true healing, and so, farm from repre-
senting things back at normal, it, too
interferes quite as much with the
nerve impulses getting through as
would the sundering of the nerve it
self.
To the specialist in charge here al
the camp these impediments TO the
nerves performing their accustomed