ition for four and five weeks before finally being undressed
and washed at the home hospital.

The whole system of handling the wounded seems to be theoretically
well conceived. In practice among the French it worked thus poorly
during the early months of the war. The wounded suffered from lack of
food, water, attention, and bathing, and the resulting number of
mortalities and amputations was exceedingly high. The effect on the
morale of those who recovered is very serious, and is in singular
contrast to the eagerness to return to the front often shown by
British and German convalescents. The care given to the wounded by
these two nations is very excellent indeed.

The same stretcher is used throughout the French army, and its
universal use is compulsory on all organizations, whether volunteer or
regular. It is not unusual for a grave case to be picked up on the
battlefield and placed upon a stretcher and to travel on it all the
way to the south of France without once being removed. The company
stretcher-bearers turn him over to the dressing station with the
stretcher upon which they have borne him. Since these stretchers are
identical in size and construction they fit all ambulances and all
railway equipments. They may be said to be current, like money, and
whenever one organization turns over a grave case to the succeeding
organization, the stretcher goes with the case, and an empty one is
received in return. The number at any one point is thus maintained at
a constant figure, and there is a general tendency for battered and
infected stretchers to gravitate toward the south of France, and for
new stretchers to gravitate toward the front.

* * * * *

There has been much typhoid in the armies in France, and it is on the
increase. The wounded men develop it more often than any other class.
Inoculation against typhoid is theoretically compulsory in the French
army. I have no personal knowledge as to the thoroughness or
effectiveness of inoculation in practice.

Lockjaw seems to develop late. Most of the cases occur after the men
have reached the south of France. The new French anti-lockjaw
inoculation of Doctor Doyen has produced most remarkable results. I
have heard, on reliable authority, that with it 80% of the cases
treated make a complete recovery. Three of my personal friends have
had lockjaw and recovered. This is, in part, due to the fact that in
all the hospitals the diagnosis