COLUMN FOR WOMEN

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 161, 12 March 1915, Page 7

COLUMN FOR WOMEN

FEMAiE PIGHTEES. It is now established beyond question that a number of women are fighting on both sides in the campaign in Russian Poland. Some interesting instances of Russian amazons have already been recounted, and further cases have been brought forward by the British official war correspondent who has been allowed by the Russian com-mander-in-chief to accompany the Russian troops to the front. Several cf the Russian newspapers have lately given details of the discovery of German women fighting in the German ranks as volunteers. Among the women at present being treated in a Russian hospital there are seven women who were captured while fighting in German uniform. They were placed together in a special ward. They are fine specimens of Teutonic womanhood, and the Russian nurses admire their finely developed muscles which seem to indicate that they have belonged for years to German gymnastic societies. They display to their captors the same haughty and contemptuous indifference which characterises Prussian officers One of the nurses offered one of them a Russian newspaper printed in German, but the patient indignantly tossed the paper aside, declaring that she wouldn’t believe anything that appeared in a Russian newspaper, even if it were printed in German. Although these women refuse to disclose anything about themselves or how they came to be in the fighting line, it is judged by those who know the Germapeople that they come fr an the upper middle class. It is believed that they belong to some German suffragette movement, and are seeking to prove the German woman’s claims to political suffrage by fighting on the field of battle. One of them died from her wounds shortly after her admision t<» the hospital.

INCREASED COST OF WOOL FOR KNITTING. Many ladies who wish to help the expeditionary forces by means which are not beyond the resources of limited purses have been admirably active in the preparation of various gifts. For instance, large numbers of socks have been provided by working women who spend all they can afford on wool for the knitting. Two such workers, who have been buying wool to the limit of their resources, have just reported that, to their great surprise, they have found that the price of knitting wool has recently been increased by 1/-, making the price 5/6 per pound, says the Post. They suggest that the Government might, in view of the great quantity of wool being used for the benefit of the troops, take some steps to prevent unwarranted increases in the cost to the purchaser, and, if necessary, establish depots for the sale of yarn made from New Zealand wool. For that matter, they added, the price of meat and other New Zealand products might with benefit be regulated in the same way.

A COAL-TAR WAR. All the military explosives excepting cordite, are prepared from coal-tar. Lyddite, melinite, the famous German explosive "T.N.T. " (or tri-nitro-tolu-ene, as chemists call it) all have their origin in the black fluid with, which our forefathers used to daub the bottom? of their oaken ships to preserve them; and, if the truth were known, it is more than Ikely that the far-famed and far-fetched "turpenite, ’ ’ the new French explosive, lias its origin in the same substance (remarks the London Daily Express). Having, used coal-tar to blow our enemies and ourselves to pieces, our chemists (acting doubtless on the principle of taking a hair of the dog that bit you) use the same material to cure our wounded and assuage their pain.

THE sum of Twenty Pounds will be The soldier, let us suppose, is in danger of his wounds becoming infected. Very well out comes an antiseptic dressing prepared with carbolic acid, which, of course, comes from coal-tar and is, incidentally the mother-sub-stance of lyddite. If the surgeon decides that an operation is necessary, it is again a case of "coal-tar to the rescue," and novocain, or a similar local anaesthetic, is applied to still the pain of the knife, and adrenalin is added to stanch the flow of blood; and both of these drugs are made nowadays from tar. The patient becomes feverish, perhaps; a dose of phenacetin is prescribed, or antlibrin, or antipyrin, all mode from tar. If the officer commanding has a twinge of rheumatism, a dose of salol, or of salicylic acid, is prescribed by themedical officer, and both of these drugs again are derived from tar. There is no end, in fact, to the list of products which owe then origin to coaltar.