The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-07-08
SHELL SHOCK IS DECLARED
 A MISNOMER

1 London, July S-Last August a. departmental committee of the War l Office was appointed, with Lord Southborough as chairman, to inquire | into the nature and treatment of shell-shock and associated matters. Criticism of the committees rate or progress has lately made itself heard | and there is considerable curiosity
 as to what it has done and is doing. The committee held it's first meet ing on September and has met once
 exceptions. At each sitting it has
 examined two or three witnesses. the last to be heard being Captain Gee
 V. c. M- P. It is examining com manding officers of all kinds and grades, medical officers, both civil and military; recruiting officers. and officers who have suffered from some
 form of shell-shock. and Is about to
 mand. It will also take the evil dence of men who have suffered. It has appointed subcommittee to deal with special aspects on the subject. It expects to report in the autumn. Hysteria Is Proper Name.
 Generally the results of the inquiry view that the term she1l-shock is un- fortunate. It Is much to be regret
 ted, indeed, that it was ever used
 at all, because in many instances the bursting of a shell has nothing to do with the shock the man receives. The l evidence shows that the affections of men said to be suffering from | shell-shock are nervous diseases In
 to the medical profession in civil life. There is really no distinction to be drawn between the two. There are, ] however. two classes of cases, There knocked down, perhaps buried by | bursting shell. There are records
 of men being killed outright by the | firing of shell close by, although l -1
 ward sign of a wound. Those may. | in a sense, be described as she'll | shock cases. but the majority Of cases are those of people who suffer either without the intervention of any par ticular explosion. These men are l either men of character or bravery
 who went on until human nature re- nervous system collapsed, or they are men who, from the beginning | had no heart for such an existence | as war, were bound to break down | and should never have been recruit | ed for service at the front. Some or | them suffered from infectious ald l other facilitating conditions.
 The work of the committee is di-
 rected rather to the future than to l the past, but the nature of the in | Quiry naturally involves the duty Of | examining the methods of treatment
 which have been applied to officers and men who suffered from these | diseases It must also be borne in
 mind that there are men who are
 still either in homes or under care | in the asylums of the country.
 | The French instituted a system of keeping men suffering from shell | shock in rest hospitals behind the front instead of sending them home. l They did this because they found | that a nervous disease was better treated in the hard medical environ
 ment of the camp than by letting II the patients return to their families,
 where they were sympathized with
 and t.molly-coddled.'
 New Recruiting Tests.
 The question has been raised whether
 methods could be devised by which
 men who are accepted by the re-
 cruiting officer but who were thought
 or known, either from personal ob-
 servation or from their medical his tory to be of nervous and sensitive disposition, should be really trained to face the ordeaLE to which men are esUbjected in these days of great shell