RECALLED TO LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1825, 11 May 1918, Page 1

RECALLED TO LIFE.

Some significant figures anent the reduction and return to life of disabled soldiers and sailors are quoted from “Recalled to ■Life," a British quarterly of that name, by the “Nation,” which inquires if the United States" is ready to profit rapidly from what progress England and France have made in the field of surgery.

“We are told that of every 1,000 men returaed as unfit for further service, 453 are rendered so by injuries and 547 by disease. Thirtytwo in the thousand have wholly or partially lost their sight; 49 have lost an arm or leg; 264 have had serious injuries to their hands; about 50 have been injured in the head, and about 60 have suffered miscellaneous hurts. Of the diseased, the largest total, 124, is accounted for by ailments of the chest, about half being tubercular; the second largest, 110, by diseases of the heart; the third, 67, by what may be called nervous troubles, of which 11 are cases of epilepsy and nine ofp insanity. When we reflect that the last 15 months have given the Empire a million dead or injured alone, we can understand that British facilities for refitting men for self-maintenance are sadly taxed. ■ “What can save Europe from a vast multiplication-of the down-and-out is a .junction of (he increasing variety of occupations and the increasing capacity of instruction, science to rouse latent ability, with desperately earnest government effort. Inquiry in a British' Government hospital for men with amputations has shown that about half of those in a position to consider carefully do not feel able to go back to their old occupations. This is specially the case with the armless. But they need not try to. Roehampton has turned a master chimney-sweep into a clerk, and an .electl’o-plater into a commercial instructor. It has converted a warehouseman, a regular, and an outfitter’s assistant into chauffeurs, A brass finisher and a gardener have just become switchboard attendants, and a shopkeeper and a farm labourer prosperous cinema operators.