THE WOUNDED AT VERDUN. [TO THE EDITOR 01 THE "
SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The Urgency Cases Hospital—you let me write of it some months ago—has been at work now for just over a year. Its work has been
crowned by the help which it has given to the wounded at Verdun. The hospital is an all-British unit, approved and assisted by the French military authorities. It began at Bar-le-Due, with 60 beds ; now it is at Revigny, not far from Verdun, planning for 200 beds, and these not enough. During the year, it has had 1,594 cases, with 54 deaths 3.5 per cent. : a very good record, seeing that the hospital is for
serious cases only, lea blesses qui peuvent mourir. The latest monthly report from Mr. Forsyth, surgeon-in-chief, is dated March 10th. The rush of work doubtless has been incessant ever since.
" The past month," says Mr. Forsyth, writing on March 10th, " has been the heaviest for the hospital since it came to France. Since February 23rd, 227 cases have been admitted. All those patients have come from Verdun and the surrounding parts. They were brought from Bar-le-Duo in ambulances, and generally arrived at night. On the 29th, we received 33 patients. Many of the wounded have only the field-dressings on their wounds. Some of them have been in a terrible condition from exposure and want of food. One poor fellow had lain in the water in a shell-hole for two days before he was found by the stretcher-bearers. The cases have nearly all been very serious, and the wounds, on the whole, have been more terrible than anything we have had to treat. Most of the wounds were from shells : and the proportion of compound fractures has been very high. . . . I regret to say that gas-gangrene has been very rife, and of a peculiarly virulent form. . . . I have nothing but praise for the way the whole staff has worked during this trying time. These are days and nights of con- tinuous toil, but all have done their best. During the two Zeppelin and two aeroplane raids on Revigny, the staff retained great composure. Special mention should be made of those on duty at these times in the hut-wards, which could have afforded but little protection from a burst- ing bomb. The quiet and sympathetic behaviour of all on duty did much to assuage the fears of the wounded, confined to their beds and unable to move. Fortunately, the two bombs aimed at the hospital fell wide ; but the experience was none the leas very terrifying."
The Committee—among whom are Sir Lauder Brunton, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, Miss Swift, Mr. Herbert Samuelson, and Mr. James Baird— appeal for money enough to keep this hospital at Revigny, or wherever the French military authorities may send it, for so long as France needs it. Donations should be sent to the Hon. Secretary, Urgency Cases Hospital, 37 Queen's Gate, S.W. For a whole year the hospital has been of service to France. It has always been within a few miles of the front. It has been of especial service to France all through the fighting round Verdun. I had the privilege, last year, of seeing its work at Bar-lc-Duc. Its work is far heavier now ; indeed, it must be almost too heavy to be done : and I cannot imagine how we can better show
IN.ance what wo think of her than by keeping this hospital hard at work in her Service. The men wounded at Verdian—wounded, we say, but many of them were downright mutilated—may have decided the whole future of the war : nothing that we can do for them is more than we 21 Ladbroke Square, W. Chairman, Urgency Cases Hospital.
P.S.—Let me add that of the 235 patients admitted between February 11th and March 10th, only eight have died, up to March 10th. This is a fine record of good surgery and good nursing.
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