Paragould soliphone., 1921-07-18
SHELL SHOCK IS DECLARED
 4 MISNOMER
international News service)


 London, July 16.--Last August q departmental committee of the War Office was appointed, with Lord Scarborough as chairman. to in uuire into the nature and treatment of shell-shock and associated mat ters. Criticism of the committees rate or progress has lately made it. self heard, and there is considerable curiosity as to what it has done and is doing.
 The committee held its first meet ing on September and has met once week ever since, with one or two exceptions. At each sitting it has examined two or three witnesses, the last to be heard being Captain Gee, V. c. M. F. It is examining commanding officers of all kinds and grades. medical officers, both civil and military; recruiting off cers. and officers who have suffered from some form of shell-shock, and is about to examine representatives of high command. It will also take the evidence of men who have suffered. It has appointed sub-com- mittees to deal with special aspects of the subject. It expects to report in the, aptpmn,i anaoa a, .laes n
 Generally the results of the in- quiry so far are understood to jus tify the view that the term shell-l shock is unfortunate. It is much to be regretted, indeed, that it was ever used at all, because in many instances the bursting of shell has nothing to do with the shock the man receives. The evidence shows that the affections of men said to be suffering from she'll shock are nervous diseases in all re- spects similar to those known to the medical profession in civil life. There is really no distinction to be drawn between the two. There are, how ever. two classes of cases. There is tho class of case where man is knocked down, perhaps buried. bv bursting shell. There are records of men being killed outright ny the firing of shell close by, although on examination they show no out ward sign of a wound. Those may, in sense, be described as sbell- shock cases, but the majority of cases are those of people who suffer either from neurosis or hystcria pro duced without the intervention Cf] any particular explosion. These men arc either men of character and bravery who went on until human nature refused to do any more, when the nervous system collapsed, or they are men who, from the be- ginning, had no heart for such an existence as war, were bound to break down aud should never have been recruited for service at the front. Some of them suffered from infections and other facilitating conditions.
 The work of the committee is di- rectcd rather to the future than to the past, but the nature of the inquiry naturally involves the duty of examining the methods of treat mont 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 d system of keeping men suffering from she'll shock in rest hospitals behind thc| front instead of sending them home They did this because they found that. nervous disease was better treated in the hard medical environ nlent of the camp than by letting the patients return to their families, whore they were sympathized with and molly coddlcd.'
 The question has been raised whether methods could not be de- yised by which men who are accept ed by the recruiting officer but who were thought or known, either from personal observation or from their medical history, to be of nerv- 0uy and sensitive disposition, should be really trained to face the ordeals to which men are subjected in theseI