A SURGEON IN BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1915, Page 5

A SURGEON IN BELGIUM.

HEROIC WOUNDED. Dr. IT. S. Souttar, a London surgeon,' tells some stirring stories of heroic endurance in his book, "A -Surgeon m Belgium," which represents his experience in supervising the English field bospitals at Antwerp and 'Fumes. Of ono of tlie Belgian soldiers, De. Rosquinei, who was terribly wounded in tho abdomen bv a shell,'he writes:—"That man crawled across several fields, a distance of nearly a mile,;on his hands and knees, dragging with him to a place of safety a wounded companion. When from loss of blood he could drag him no longer, he left him under a hedge and dragged himself another half-mile till he could get help. When he was brought into the hospital he was so exhausted from pain and loss of blood that no one thought he could live, more than a few 'hours, but by sheer pluck he pulled through." A London journalist, who at the outbreak of war joined the Jielgiau army and took part in a great deal of reconnoitring work in an armored car, underwent a terrible experience. One day while out in the armored car hunting Uhlans, he and his comrades encountered an unexpectedly large, party of Germans, who immediately opened fire. Writing of this man, Dr. Soutar says: "In their first volley both his legs were, hit, both tibiae being fractured, and be fell down, just behind the armored car. Owing to some mistake an officer in the car gave the order to start. The wounded man would have been left to his fate, but suddenly realising how desperate his position was, he threw up bis hand and caught hold of one of the. rear springs. Lying on his back and holding on to the spring, he was dragged along tho ground, with both his legs broken, for a distance of about half a mile. Tlie car was going at about 25 miles an hour, and how be maintained his hold heaven only knows. At last they pulled up, and there, they found him, practically unconscious, bis clothes torn to ribbons, his back a mass of bruises, but still holding on."

One of the most terrible, scenes witnessed by Dr. Souttar was the haTOC caused by a German shell which exploded in a hosiptal at Lierre.. Tlie shell, instead of exploding immediately it struck the roof of the building, continued to explode as it passed down through the floors. "Obviously, no living thing could have survived that awful hail," he writes. "When the shell came, tlie wounded soldiers in the wards were eating walnuts, and on the bed of one lay* a walnut half opened and the little penknife the man had been using. l?«th the knife and walnut were stained witk blood. We turned away sickened at the sight, and retraced the passage with the nuns. As we walked along they pointed out to us marks we had not noticed before—red finger marks and splashes of blood on the pale blue distemper of the wall. All down the piwI sage and the staircase we could trae« them, and even in the hall below. Four men had been standing in the doorway of the upper ward. Two Were kilM, and the other two, bleeding and blinded by the explosion, had groped their way along that wall and down the »tair«. I have seen many terrible sights, but foe utter and concentrated horror I have never seen anything to equal those ffHfsor marks, the very sign manual of Death."