" LES BLESSES QUI PEUVENT MOURIR."
[To TOR EDITOR Or Tile " SPECTATOR."'" Sm—You let me ask for help last May for the Urgency Cases Hospital in France, and your readers were so generous then that I venture to ask for help again. The Committee is appealing for £3,000 to see the hospital well through the next six months of the war, Many gifts have been received in answer to this appeal, but the whole sum has not yet been raised. The appeal is signed by Sir Lauder Brunton, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, Colonel Mayo Robson, Mr. Herbert Samuelson (Hon. Treasurer), and Mr. James Baird (Hon. Secretary). Donations ought to be sent to Mr. Baird, at
50A. Curzon Street, W.
The hospital is for the French wounded only. It takes
those only who are severely wounded—lee blesses qui peuvent mourir—and it takes them as quick as it can get them from the front. It began at Bar-le-Due last March with 60 beds; it now is at Revigny with 120 beds. It has had more than 1.000 patients with only 40 deaths-4 per cent. —a very satis- factory record, seeing that it takes no cases which are not serious. At Revigny it is only a few miles from the Argonne lines, and a rush of work may come at any time. Of 59 patients lately admitted, 24 were wounded by shells, 26 by bombs, and 9 by bullets. Of these 59 patients, 38 had severe compound fractures. The expenses are heavy, for there is the upkeep of the motor-ambulance department, food prices are high, and, with so many large wounds, mostly infected, the amount of dressings used is very great. A hospital in London in time of peace can effect many small economies which are impossible at Revigny, if the patients are to be properly looked after and
made fairly comfortable thtough this winter.
I had the privilege of seeing the hospital's work at Bar-le- Due, and I can truly say that it is representative of good surgery and good nursing. But the testimony of the French military authorities is more worth having than mine. General Mignon, head of the Service de Santd of the Third French Army, wrote, on the 6th inst., to Mr. Forsyth, the chief surgeon of the Urgency Cases Hospital, as follows:— " Je n'15prouve anomie difficult6 A vous donner l'assuranoe qua rapprecie hautement votro concoure devoud. Par Is nombre des lits de votre hdpital, par lee some empresses de votro personnel A regard de nos bless6s, par la sollioitude constant() qui entoure nos malades, vous nous apportez une prooieuse collaboration dont je vous suits personnellement reconnaissant. . . . Et o'est de tont °tour qua je vous die, Moroi."
This commendation of the hospital's work gives it a very strong claim on all who wish to be of service to France during the next few months.—I am, Sir, Sro.,
STEPHEN PAGET,
Chairman of Committee, Urgency Caw Hospital
21 Ladbroke Square, W.
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