The Dominion. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1916. LIFE-SAVING AT THE FRONT.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2883, 22 September 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1916. LIFE-SAVING AT THE FRONT.

1 The list of doctors who have given their'lives for their country in this wai; is a long one. The medical pWjfession has ■ tlouo noble work at the front. / Some of the greatest surgeons . aiid physioians in the world have placed their services at the disposal of the naval and military authorities, and the casualty , lists which appear, week by week' in the Lancet show that; the doctors arc [taking their full share oftheperils and hardships of the campaign. Dr. A.. A. Martin, of Palmerston North, whoee death from wounds was announced yesterday, was one of the members of the medical profession who at'once placed his services at the' disposal of his country. He was in England when' the war began, and promptly joined tho Expeditionary Army. He lmd already sorved as a civil surgeon attached to the Boyal Army" Medical Corps during tho South African AVar, receiving a medal and four clasps. His previous war experience, valuable as it was, did riot; however, secure for him any higher rank than any young doctor who' had just completed his medical training; He regarded this as a defect in the organisation of the Royal Army Medical Corps, but duty . pointed to action, not, argument, and he did what he was told. In; his Surgeon in- JUiaM, he states that ' : 'many able "medical men all civer the oountnry had voluntarily left' iucrative practices, and important] surgical and medical staff appointmeptein big London'and provincial nospitals, and were enrolled as lieutenants in the Boyal Army Medical Corps, 6n tho same footing junior' medical men-who had perhaps been their pupils but a few weeks before." Dr. Martin'was_ not the only one to comment on this anomalous*, arrangement, but it was the" Empire's work tney were doing, and they were determined; to do it with all the skill and energy possessed, no matter what they might think of the regulations. 1 In response to their country's call they had said: "Here am I, send me," and in that spirit the Army and 'Navy doctors are helping to win the war. In that spirit Sir Victob 'Horsley, one of the world's greatest surgeons, went but to Mesopo- 1 tamia and died there two months ago. First he. served in France, and then he went to Egypt as Colonel-Consultant. While in Egypt he heard the call from Mesopotamia, and obeyed it. Though he was 59 years of age he was not daunted by the arduous nature of the task he felt it his duty to undertake. A heat stroke 'brought his 'brilliant career to a glorious end. "Faithful unto- death might well be the epitaph of this prince of surgeons, and of all tho other doctors who nave died at the front, loving their country better than their own lives. 1 The Koyal Army Medical Corps is rendering splendid service in tho great fight which is now being fought on the Western front. Sir Douglas Haig is a man of few words. Ho does not pay empty compliments. His. praise is praise indeed. The doctors may, therefore, feel justly proud of the tribute which the Commander-in-Chief pays to them in .a Special Order of the Day. Ho expresses "high appreciation of their hard work and the efficiency of the arrangements for dealing with v the medical aspect of the present situation." Oommenting on Sir Douglas Haig's commendation, the Lance!, reminds us that the Royal Army Medical Corps is as now as any part of the Britisli Expeditionary, Force, but it has rison to tho occasion. "How highly the organisation and personnel of tho corps must have been tried during tho early days of the gi'and advance of 'the Allied [lorces on the AVostern' front can be nioasurcd to some ox ton t by tho casualty lists; and tho fact that-the number of wounded who will be in. a briof space Of timo with I their fighting comrades is so very I largo forms a practical commentary Six Oirtcv, proving that all details of collection, transport, and afrangemont o/ the wounded proceeded swiftly and Smoothly, despite the. strain \irOducoc! by tho tremendous struggle." In describing this wonderful work of "iifo-saving under fire," Dr. Grenfell, of Labrador, romarks that heretofore whole armies have (jeen decimated by a. single disease Tike typhoid. When our men took civer the trenches west of Ypres, where typhoid was endemic in the villages, our Allies had already 6000

cases hors de combat from this disease. Twenty-six thousand Belgians fiacl to bo inoculated. But now typhoid is so spiall a factor that if a single case occurs anywhere in tho four armies, it is' known tho same night at Headquarters, and next day a rigid inquiry is held as to tho cause., Tetanus, a most terrible and fatal clanger of mud associated with wounds, is being met with' inoculation so soon after the event that it, too, has become an almost negligible ■ .factor in mortality. Trench feet at first disabled thousands of our .soldiers] to-day it is no longer a problem. The doctors have often to perform their task under exceedingly difficult and toying conditions. One- great surgeon was. I ,in the act of operating whtjn heavy shells falling in the hospital area destroyed the lighting plant, and tho operation had to bo finished by lamp light. Thoro are men permanently in' France, writes Dk. Gbeni'EUi, whose skill brings them, in the comfort of their own homes, ten times, tho money for which they are serving the Empire. Such men are an honour to.the profession, but they could not jiufc their, skill to a nobler use than in saving the lives and alleviating the sufferings of our splendid soldiers;