STEEL HELMETS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3194, 19 September 1917, Page 5

STEEL HELMETS

THEIR, VALTJE AS LIFE-SAVERS. Discussing the value of the steel helmet in battle, n.'French medical writer m "La Nature" says that out of 55 cases of head injury it was found that 42 occurred in soldiers who wore no helmet. Among tho 42 tliere were 23 fractured skulls. The remaining 19 casas suffered from severe, scalp "wounds. Among tlie IS cases which wore helmets there was not a single fracture of the skull; 8 showed some concussion effects, and 5 had sliglit wotm&t. A 'considerable num. ber of the unprotected cases died; none of the protected died. The most sigrtificant fact which lias emerged since the holmet was introduced was emphasised bv Dr. Roussy at the Academy of Medicine. Ho 'said that the percentage of cases showing wounds in the head had increased. Tho Toason was, of course, that the number of sudden deaths from tho cause had markedly dc« creased. A French writer points out that of 179 abdominal wounds 332 were caused by shTapnel and pieces of shell having a low velocity. An abdominal protection would 'save these cases. Again, among 15 penetrating wounds of the lung two only showed exit orificcs for the bullet or p'ieoe of shell,\ i.0., in •13 cases out of 15 thef projectile had not enough force behind it to drivo it through the body tissues. A breastplate would have saved these wounds. Tho mortality from these low-velocity shrapnel wbnnds is said to be ,'tbout ten times greater than from bullet wounds which penetrate. The conclusions are arrived at in "La Nature" that as threefourths of war wonnds which aro received for treatment aro now dne to shrapnel and pieces of shell at low velocity, and as these wounds aro very fatal on account of the infection and blood poisoning following them, it will, bp worth while to consider the question of protection for all these parts.