WITH AN AMBULANCE IN WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2211, 16 July 1896, Page 50

WITH AN AMBULANCE IN WAR.

Murray, entitled " With an Ambulance During the Franco-German War," Mr C. E. Ryan, F.R.0.5.1. and M R.0.P.1., tells us that he was studying medicine in Dublin when the successive early defeats of the French were announced. His sympathies were with the French, and, eager to be of service to their wounded, he went to Paris and was accepted as a sous aide in an ambulance organised by a number of English and American surgeons, the chief of whom waß Dr (now Sir William) MacOormac. On August 30 he was in Sedan, upon which Marshal MacMahon's army was retreating. From the Caserne, which was converted into an hospital, he had an unbroken view of the fighting on the plains on September 1.

IN OBM3ANS— GERMAN SUPERIORITY.

They entered Orleans on October 19, then occupied by a small garrison of Bavarians, all the available troops having been sent in pursuit of the army of the Loire, which was in full retreat upon Tours. Here this conclusion was forced upon him :— 41 The German soldiers are certainly a magnificent body of men ; and, although at .the bottom of my heart my sympathies and affections are altogether with the French, despite their shortcomings, I am bound to declare the superiority of their adversaries as men of fine physique and manly bearing, and of cool, undaunted courage." The German soldier was superior in discipline, fighting power, morale, and brains ; but :— "As for bis manners, they are at the best of times uncouth, not to say detestable, and when at meals, disgusting. He is an enormous eater, caring not so much about the quality 6f what he devours so long as quantity is provided; and though he drinks an amount of beer that would make any other European helplessly intoxicated, he is seldom drunk. Nothing irritates him like hunger and (thirst, in which citosmstance he fornisb.eA.tha most anpleasinft coatrwb to ft

French, soldier— always patient,, and commonly .cheerful under Bnch privations!"

THE LOT OF THB WOUNDED.

The ambulance staff re-entered the service of the French. Woanded were j?onrlng into the town, and the staff was ordered to .move the German patients from the barracks to give accommodation for the Foreign Legion : — " Thus we were compelled by the French, authorities to take out of their beds, as beet we could, men in dire agony, some even at the door of death, and ali severely woanded. I could not jeoall without pain the details of the scenes which accompanied their transportatlon. As I have said, their wounds were all of the graveßt character; some were mortal, the majority were amputations, and the remainder compound fractures, or severe lacerated shell wounds. To shake the bed of many of these patients, or even to move them gantly, was to cause them acute Buffering. One . may imagine the agony of these brave fellows when they were hauled out on their mattresses and put, two or three together, into a carl or waggon, which, no matter how carefully driven, bad to jostle them along the weary streets to their destination. I went successively into several of the waggons where Borne of the worst cases were, and did all in my power to mitigate their dreadful pains ; but, in spite of everything I could do, they moaned most piteously as the wheels bumped 'over any roughness in the pavement. I thought a ballet through the heart was^ preferable to suoir agony' as they endured." ■ , ,' „ A SINGULAR WoPHECr.^

Mr Byan could not help contrasting the sturdy, well-built, well-fed, woll-accoutred German soldiery with the French regiments he bad watched pressing across the Loire : — " TUe difference spoke eloquently in favour of that elaborate and admirable scheme of military organisation which brought them to

such a degree of perfection. It also elicited from a British officer who was with me at the time a remark that, unless we ourselves take up some more comprehensive scheme of organising our forces, we shall be thrashed by this ambitious race of soldiers the fleet time we come into confliot with them. Nay, more, it iB possible that they might invade and overrun England in a short campaign, should they ever become as great adepts in the art of war on the high Beas aB they are on land. Many of the German officers whom I have met were of opinion that such an enterprise was not beyond the scope of German ambition and German energy. More than once I heard them anticipating that the result of their victorious career would be to bring all the nations of Europe under the wing of their imperial eagle. And though willing to allow that England would be the last to come in, since without a mighty fleet they could not get at her, yet she too must share the fate of her neighbours." Mr Ryan has been as sparing as he well could be of the horrors of the military hospital; but, despite his restraint, his work has all the fascination of the terrible. « People talk very lightly," he remarks at the close, "of the great European war that is said to be inevitable. 15 can do no harm to measure as far as possible what suoh a war may mean." His book helps one to make that measure. " Give us peace in our time, O Lord 1" is a prayer to which the experiences of an army surgeon should give aa intensity of meaning it were impossible otherwise to attain.— St. James's Gazette. *