A DOCTOR'S EXPERIENCES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2430, 8 April 1915, Page 6

A DOCTOR'S EXPERIENCES

LIFE IN A BASE HOSPITAL

A TOMMY'S HUMOUR

Dr. Donald M. Wilson, son of Mr. George Wilson, of Hawker Street, who is now "somewhere in France," writes interestingly to his father under date January 20, of his recent experiences whilst at the base hospital at Boulogne. The letter runs: —

"Things are going along here in the usual way, but I notice in to-day's papers Yarmouth has been the scene of an air raid. My only surprise is that they have not been ov.\; before. Our own airmen have been more daring.and restricted themselves to attacking points of military significance. . • . My work continues much lighter than it was at first, as there is little fighting of a serious nature, but I suppose as the weather improves we must expect to be busier. However, I have had some most interesting cases. I would like to publish some of them, but there are numbers of specialists out here., who ask one about one's cases, take one's notes, and then publish the cases, although they have, had nothing to do with them. However, I don't mind so long as I personally can feel I have an interest, and at any rate some of the credit, for any unexpected successes. His Pet Patient. "My pet patient went home the other day—the one whose face his wife had regretted taking a fancy to I He came in and no one expected him to live. A huge hole in the back of his chest and part of a lung blown away. He got on wonderfully. But he was a character! One day he was telling me how he was wounded, and that as he lay bleeding his pal brought him some rum, saying, 'Are you able to drink it, Tom?' " I says to him, doctor, if I'm going to Heaven now I may as well go drunk as sober, so I took it. If 1 was going among the spirits, I thought I would take some with' me." He was verv fontl of curling up his moustache a la Kaiser to tease the sister. One day it was not curled up, so I told him to curl it., 'Well, sir. I can't,' said he, 'as there's no jam till tea-time 1' those Cerman Field Classes. "He used to keep us all merry and bright, and I am sure his wonderful spirits was a factor in his recovery. Tom has a pair of German field glasses of which he was very fond. I asked him how he got them- " 'From a German officer,' said Tom. "'Yes,, but how?' I questioned. " 'Well, sir, yon see he couldn't refuse as I a-sked him very politely, and besides he.was dangling at the end of my bayonet when I asked him!' "By the way, you might be interested to know that there has been no British soldier in this hospital with a bayonet wound. "Sister Fairchild (daughter of the late Captain Fairchild, ofi Wellington) has left here for Versailles. Now I know why the French people are so keen on perfumes. They seldom bathe —they have no conveniences for such a luxury, and I believe the Boulogne folk will require to remain dirty till the end of the war because we are using the baths attached to the casino. We are using them as sleeping rooms, and it is very convenient being able to pop from one's bed to the bath without going on a tour through tho building.. Our feeding is excellent. We draw rations, and in addition get extras sent us. Our dinner is as good a three-course meal as one could wish for. We buy all the London papers and journals for the mess, and the whole cost comes to .a little over one franc per diem. I see by to-day's papers that the Government is going to give us a grant of £30 towards our outfit. . . . Wnen we are paying such a high income tax (2s. 6d. in tho £1), perhaps £30 is not much to offer. However, I'm not grumbling. Men from the Trenohes. "No doubt you will have read of the wretched weather and awful times our men have had in the trenches. I get them here after they have. stood for days and nights up to their waists in water. We have no idea of the hardships they are enduring. Fortunately, comparatively few of these are frostbitten, their trouble .being merely a swollen condition of-tile feet due to standing in the cold water. They soon get well again. I have only seen two or three casos where amputations were necessary. Our great trouble was the awful sepsis of the gas gangrene. No one has ever seen anything like it before. . There has not been quite so many of these cases since the winter came on. Sometimes the men are lying out days before they are picked up and seen to, and it is this delay which is the cause of so much wastage of life." "We have the best hospital in France and the most, distinguished staff of specialists. Everything; happens here, and all distinguished visitors call. I was not actually introduced to the King, but I was standing beside him and the Prince of Wales for about ten minutes. The King was delightfully free and easy." Good Stories. "Here are a couple of good war stories. A corporal was told off to bury some Gorman dead, and after he and his party had buried a few they discovered one who persisted in arguing that he was not dead —be was only wounded. The corporal nibbed his head, and turned to his men and said: 'I say, you fellers, here's a chap says he's not dead, but orders is orders, and these Germans are such liars I"' An ambulance wagon was racing along when the driver was hailed by a wounded soldier, who said one of his legs was blown off. The driver put him in the wagon, and drove off to a dressing station. On the way a shell struck the wagon and blew off the wounded man's head. On arrival at the station the officor went to take the man out of the wagon, but discovering him headless, said: "You are a fool for bringing in a headless man!' 'Head blown off, sir? Well, he's a lovely liar, for he told me it was his leg!' "