NEWS OF THE WAR THE WOUNDS OF BOER BULLETS.

Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 152, 27 December 1899, Page 2

NEWS OF THE WAR THE WOUNDS OF BOER BULLETS.

WONDERFUL PATIENTS. l Those who visited the Wynberg camp (says the Cape Argus) found some of the wounded hopping about, others with arms in slings, and others wounded about head, legs, and face. Two things struck the visitor very forcibly, anii these were the marvellous escapes §ome of the men must have had, and the healing qualities of Tommy Atkins. It was only a fortnight previously that these same men were wounded while fighting hard till late in the evening under a heavy searching fire of a numerically superior force of Boers, and,many tailes from the port of Natal. Many of their comrades suffered more severely, and those had to be left in Natal, some unfortunately requiring the attention of the surgeon. Here, however, are these 123 -brought down by the Jelunga rapidly progressing towards recovery, under the untiring attention of their medical officers, and having greatly, benefited by the ohange. ' .' As illustrating the rapidity with which many 6f the brave fellows nave recover- ■ ed, some of the Gordons and Devons, who had been shot through the shoulder, arms, wrists, hands, calves, and thighs, showed their wounds so far as advisable, and proudly exercised their muscles, showing that it would not be long ere they could again use their limbs if duty required. Amongst the more marvellous escapes may be mentioned one poor fellow who had a number of his comrades sent out with the Union Jack to pay their last respects to him. He was shot through 'the head, the bullet entering on, one side about level with the eye and coming out at exactly the same position on the other. He was given up as dead, but on being taken into camp, and after three days' of unconsciousness, began to pull through. How he escaped with such a wound may puzzle medical science, but nevertheless the fact remains that here ia this soldier in Wynberg, and fast recovering^* Anothe|r Devonshire man was walking, about hale and hearty with the mark where a piece of flesh had been shot from his left cheek bons, while another was bandaged round his upper lip, having lost one side of his moustache. Another had a nasty wound at the back of his ear from a shell splinter. Another private in the Gordons, wlio was limping about the stoep with a bullet wound just below the joint of the knee, says lie only got a shock wh,en the officers . of tite medioal corps, turried the X rays on him. All the men agreed that they felt no pain . when wounded' beyond a sharp sting, and some had doubled a distance of 600 yards before the loss of olood and the numbness brought them to a halt. The marks on the wound where the bullets entered, were not much larger than a threepenny piece,. while where the exit was made it is surprising how anything larger than a pea Gould have left so v small a trace of injury. ' -^ The rapid progress made by these men speak? volumes for the splendid service rendered by the Army Medical Corps, and when it ie stated that a large number of those wounded in tho more ' flashy ptirts &re now anxious and are indeed applying to be sent back to their companions, the work of that corps may be better realised.