PARIS FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

Wanganui Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1095, 17 February 1871, Page 2

PARIS FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

A corespondent in Paris of the ; Medical Times and Gazette, writing on the 49th day of the siege, sends the following- interesting- particulars as to the medical aspect of affairs inside the city :—" He describes the French as quite unable to cope with the Prussians, and corroborates all the statements 'we have heard as to their military organisation being- a sham, supported by false reports and, corruption on all sides. The medical department is strangled by the iritendance. Not an improvement has been introduced into the hospital or ambulance arrang-ements since the commencement of the war; and hence it is that the International and American ambulance have had so much to do. He has 6eea many hospitals, and great numbers of wounded, but, except among- the Americans and Austrians. •

he has not seen much to admire. He stood a few days ago, during a severe flght close by a battery of mitrailleuses doin.r their horrible work • it ". was awful; many of the wounded had ito be left on the field on the approach of night. The Americans treat their cases in tents heated in a simple and ingenious way. They have under their care gunshot wounds, through the neckand shaft of th« femur doing without operation ; alsowouns of the lungs proceeding favourably—in fact almost all wounds seem 10 do well with care, except those of the knee. The Austrian surgeons are also very. successful in the preservation bf ' limbs, The scarcity of meat is much felt, the allowance being 35 grammes or less than 1£ oz. daily, so that ■ people who are unable to get anything beyond the actual allowance are put to great straits, and the mortality has greatly increased. People ; who can afford famine prices can still be well fed.