THE RUSSIAN AS A PATIENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 26 May 1915, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN AS A PATIENT.

A NE>r ZEALAND^ DOCTOR'S EX- ',. , PEHIENCE. J - ; : . \

: Lieut.-Colonel H.C. Barclay, M.D. (whose home is at Waimate in CanterDury, and who is on.service in connection "with Red Cross work in the present war), says: • To the medical man the Russian soldier is the most admirable patient conceivable. He' never argues, he never disputes, he never complains 'he never criticises. This state of things is heaven, to the medical practitioner. Tell a sister that No, 38 has to be on the, operating table~in half an hour, and he is there" without discussion. When he wakes up from the chloroform and you blandly tell him you have amputated his arm or leg he smiles, he seizes you by the hand, and convulsively kisses the back of it. His gratitude is. unbounded. When you remark apologetically that you are sorry you had to do it; he says, "Neechevo! Spasibo. Vy ochsn Leubezny." (It doesn't matter Thank you. You art very kind.) It is a strange experience for "a surgeon accustomed to serve in English communities in public positions, and who ha>been subjected to the continuous, irri tating often malicious criticisms of public men, of the patients and' their" friends, and perhaps " of his hospital staff, to be suddenly transplanted into an atmosphere where his decision and his conduct are utterly unchallenged, and where his orders are as obediently •carried out as a ukase of the Czar of Russia. This is to live in ah'.:atmosphere which to the surgeon is no doubtideal, and its effect is also a little extraordinary. , With no irritating environment, with nothing standing, between your conscience and your God, with a capacity to, dp exactly what you honestly believe to be right, you are lifted up into a highsr and purer atmosphere than you have ever experienced "hefcff-e. Its effect is to make a man perhaps more conscientious, more thor-ough-going, more absolutely honest in his conduct than he ever could be under circumstances Avhere he is always being gently pushed in one direction or another by his surroundings. Such was the atmosphere of the hospital in which I had the pleasure to do avast amount of ' surgical work. One could leave it with the feeling that one had never deviated for an instant, so far as his own conscience went, from the narrow path of right doing. There was no temptation to do otherwise'than was absolutely right. The Russian physique is of an extremely high standard, possibly due tc the fact that on the emotional side of his nature he may not be highly de» velopad. He prays to St. Nicholas and trusts to luck for the rest. Having done that he lets come what may. He is in. a way a fatalist, and as long as he feels that his superiors are doing their best the idea even of discontent never crosses his mind. . He is a little, of the lymphatic temperament; he has not the active irritating nerves of the Anglo-Saxon and Celt, and when he is not in violent pain, or busy eating his thick meat soup and black bread, he is asleep, at peace with God and man—and his doctor! Like a new-born babe he sleeps himself well again. j As illustrative, of his simple nature, I may mention that among my books which I carried with me to Lvcw was a little one of Japanese fairy tales. This I lent to some of the Englishspeaking Sisters, and to my great astonishment these tales were the favorite reading in the wards. The sisters would read aloud to. the soldiers the pretty fables of Japan. This little book went all round the building, and it was admitted en all handf* that the charming simplicity and pathos of these tales exactly suited the mental calibre of the Russian soldier. Their gratitude was not that of a day*, for many or them wrote after they had left* thehospital, never forgetting to send their affectionate regards and expressing their gratitude to the doctors who had so cheerfully lopped off their limbs. - Unable to speak any Russian, and depending entirely on two or- three Sisters who could speak some English, there _ was naturally one uneducated class in the hospitarwith whom I could held no-converse. I refer particularly - to the ward attendants, called sanitars, ,or, as we would say, hospital orderlies. Yet, on the morning when I was leaving Lvow, these 42 men suddenly crowded into my bec.,-oom and mode me a presentation with an address thanking me for my humane conduct. We surgeons were a queer mixture; there was an Anglo-Russian at the head, a Frenchman of Jewish extraction, a physician of Polish birth, another physician came of Russo-German parents, not to mention at the tail end a New Zealand Englishman. Notwithstanding this mixture, however, the greatest harmony really prevailed among us (verb, sap, we did not know each other's language). As to the actual medical hospital treatment, the Russian and the British eye do not always look through the same pair'of spectacles. 1 thought the application of purely aseptic and dry dressings to all wounds was not appropriate, but after a little discussion I was allowed entirely a free hand to carry out my work, according to my own ideaa. There was a marvellous immunity from chloroform sickness, though for ordinary work absolutely no preparation of the patient was made, still, sickness hardly ever followed. An esculent appetite most frequently resulted from the anesthetic.

On December 9 I left for Petrograd, going on duty to Kief and Moscow, and I found the parting with the Russian soldiers extremely hard to bear. Perhaps I may be allowed to say it was quite mutual; the Russian soldier does not suppress his emotion, and between sobs and tears and blessing and ki.__ings of the band I found the farewelling extremely painful. The military band that was accustomed to visit, us weekly had been duly instructed in an air little known in Russia.—our National Anthem—and at concerts it was always played "partly out of .compliment to my nationality.