FRENCH SURGICAL METHODS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1916, Page 5

FRENCH SURGICAL METHODS.

CHEAT SAVING OF LIFE. Received Oct 5, 8.30 p.m. New York, Oct. <f. '■Professor Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, announces that the adoption of reforms .in surgical methods throughout France has resulted in a vast diminution of amputatjon and fataj wounds. He also states that the u.,p oi the Daken solution for wounds is rendering it possible to do much grafting of tissue, hone and llesli, uliicli was hit'herto im])rnelieablp on a large seal... Another reform was the adoption of the American system of .-peeding »p the transport of the wounded. BANTAMS' BRAVERY CAPTURE OP BAVARIANS I DWARFS LEADING GIANTS The Bantam Battalions have distinguished themselves in the battle of thi Somme. Jlr. Phillip Gibbs describes them ns the sturdiest, pluckiest, little men one can meet on a long day's march. They have been under fire in several parts of the line where it is not good for any men to be except for duty's sake. It has generally been their fate tp act in support 0: other troops—troops whom it is an honor to support when they go into action, because their regiments have won lame on all the battlefields of Europe since the Napoleonic "wars. "But it is always a dangerous honoi to be in sup--port. The attacking troops have often an easier time than those who lie behind them with scanty cover. It is here'that the enemy's barrage is likely to fall, and there is not much fun in lying under shell fire hour after hour, perhaps, for two days without seeing the enemy or getting at him. The ground becomes strewn with dead a.nd wounded. It is then that to ''hold on" means the highest heroism. The Bantams held on in hours like this, held on gamely and with wonderful grit. They became gront diggers, and because they are not very high a shallow trench was good enough for cover, and they burrowed like ants. "They would as soon forget their rifles as their shovels," said one of their officers to-day. "There is no need to tell them to big. They get to work quickly, being old soldiers now who have learnt by experl-. ence."

They are old soldiers in cunning and knowledge, but there 1 are young lads amongst them. Old or tbere are many middle-aged Bahama who stand no higher than lift in their socks—they are all the Peter Pans of the British Army—the Boys-who-wouldn't-grow-up, and, 'ike the heroic Peter Pan himself, who was surely the first of the Bantams, they are eager for single combat with the greatest enemy of England, Home, and Beauty who may como along. They had their chance yesterday, and brought back a number of enormous Bavarians iu prisoners fairly captured.

A certain flantam. cx-boilerniaker, of Leeds—"the grandest city in the world," he says—and the King's Jester of his battalion, was enormously amused by the incident. He said that each Bantam looked no higher than the match-tick to the candle with each Bavarian. To alt these little men the German soldiers looked like giants but like so many Hop-o'-my-Thumbs they took charge of these Bavaria* ClHiiderbOTos and brought them back in triumph. They went searching for them in the ruins of a village some days ago and found some of them sniping from the trees. They brought thfiM down with a crash and collected souvenirs. This village was a dreadful place when some of tre Bantams went ilito it. Only a few ruins remained and about thes'tS many soldiers of many different regiments went prowling in starch of Gt> mans who were still concealed in dugouts and shell-craters, and who stilt defended the outskirts of tin village -with machine-guns which swept the streets. ARMOURED FORT WIPED OUT. STORY OP A HAD GERMAN": OFFICER. Generad Dull 'Olid, {be Italian Munitions Minister, who has just returned to Paris after visiting the Somme, is, enthusiastic over the achievements of the French gunners (says the London Daily Mail), These, he says, surpass all belief. Where far months' the Germans had multiplied their formidable entrenchments nothing remains. Another testimony to the effective work of the French "heavies" comes from an artillery officer, who made the following statement to the correspondent of the Paris Libcrte:— "The objective of my battery was a small but redoubtable fort. -Everything possible had been doh6 td make it pl-obf against attack, including the use of armof-pidtihg and concrete shelters 40ft deep. We hail orders, cost what it might, to take the fort. More than "250 large shells were rained upon it in less than six hours, and one after another its def.mcd wOfk3 disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Some hours later the officers of the battery went to see what was left of the fort. Under a mass of luins »*ddebris of various sorts they came upon a dying non-commissioned officer—a Bavarian. As we'knelt beside him he told us this tragic story: 'Thirty-two men held the fort, commanded by a lieutenant. After ten hours' bombardment half the men had disappeared, the vie tims of a terrible death. Two were decapitatcd, and of three others among whom a shell fell we never found the slightest trace. The survivors, huddled together at the bottom of the underground shelters, awaited the end. A new explosion shook the cavern, throwing us one against the other. '• 'Suddenly a bright (lame sprang up in the far corner of our shelter, and W» knew it was on tire. We "were seined with terror, immediately Intensified by the sight of our lieutemtfii, who nifl gone mad and was firing his at an imaginary enemy, -in tlw midst of the flickering dailies qu indescribable massacre' took place. The, pliicer, his frenzy increasing every mouieut, killed all his nieu one after another, lie perished himself in the. flames.' "As for the Bavarian, he escaped by climbing over the mass of debris ftlid reached the tfpen air. There he was knocked over by a bursting shell aitd almost buried under a block of stohe.' 110 died trie same pight in a Irpch ambulance," ':