NEW MEN.

Another Appeal

FIELD-MARSHAL THE VISCOUNT FRENCH, writing to this paper, begs the interest of New Zealand people in The Queen's Hospital, Frogrial, Sidcup, Kent, England, for sailors and soldiers suffering from facial and jaw injuries. Lord French in his letter says that many of the injuries are frightful in the extreme, and cannot be explained in ordinary words. Plastic surgery has developed' tremendously owing* to the dreadful necessities of the present war. In a circular sent

by the Field-Marshal, it is stated: "The marvels of present-day surgery can effect cures in 90 per cent, of the oases if sufficient time and careful nursing are available, but experience shows that frequently a period of from one to two years is required to build up and restore the features of men who would otherwise be permanently disfigured."

This plastic reconstruction is a happy combination of surgical science in its highest development and art. To aid the surgeons, MiEdwards, the eminent sculptor, takes care that the "new creation" shall accord with the man's features. A piece of bone is taken from a man's rib and used as his new jaw foundation' without detriment to the rib. Nerves have been transplanted and have grown so that natural movement becomes possible; a piece of cartilage has been taken from the chest of a soldier and used to found a new nose. This "plastic surgery" is, in effect, the application of common sense. It is, indeed, the application of the arts the ordinary plant nurseryman uses. You yourself have seen the grafting of new vigorous wood on an old tree, have watched' the unspeakably marvellous use Nature makes of the new material and have • seen the tree blossom and burgeon with new life. To the people who understand the significance of the "plastic surgery" practised by splendidly unselfish women and men at this new London hospital, this appeal for the largest aid N.Z. can give will not be in vain; nor will anyone .with brains believe it foolish.

A few weeks ago present writer, whose particular pride it is that he is in touch with soldiers of the Empire in every terrain in which His Majesty's troops are fighting, received a letter saying that a soldier had' had his face bitten irreparably by a camel. This unfortunate man, hideously disfigured, knowing how human beings regard disfigurement, shot himself. He was perfectly justified. One simply reminds the average being of the perfectly natural aversion of the individual to a person who is without a nose, or without ears, to claim their pity for the splendid men who have been disfigured in a ghastly way by war. Every combatant nation has these pathetic people. It is your business to assist the wonderful people who re-construct God's damaged work and to aid them to the full extent of your purse. Mothers and fathers maybe believe that everything that is written in newspapers is a new idea for gathering money. But the mother or father who meets a boy retiirned from the war hideous, voiceless, unspeakably unpleasant, will know that this is the appeal of one who knows exactly what terrible things a bullet m:ay do to a being fashioned in the image, of the Creator.

The fact for people to remember is that every war sets new problems for the solution of man and that man. stimulated by these problems responds with definite variations of new ideas. "Plastic surgery" is in effect the surgery of the savage, but the modern devotee of surgery will scarcely believe this unless the person who declares this truth is able to substantiate it with specific instances. A person who has lived among savages whose curative genius is instinctive is unable to do this, but it may interest painfullytrained surgeons to know that "plastic surgery" is a renaissance of primitive instinct. However, the point of this appeal is funds for The Queen's Hospital, at the above address. It is perfectly impossible to make the person unfamiliar with any kind of war familiar with the results, but it is easy to so spur the imagination that pity and money will flow from them. This revival of "plastic surgery" is the result of modest British genius. The practitioners do not seek advertisement. They exist merely to re-construct, if possible, the shattered features of your soldiers. They must have money. You have- money. Give it to the -Queen's Hospital.