Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 18 February 1915, Page 34

Notes

One Qualification

A London paper records that a city solicitor, who has joined the Ist Sportsman’s Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, has received the following congratulatory telegram from an old client: —‘Accept my congratulations on your gallantry in joining the Sportsman’s Battalion. Anyway, you know how to charge

The Best Women Nurses

No name stands higher in the medical world than that of the late Dr S. Weir Mitchell, well known as an author and as the founder and chief exponent of the famous and highly successful Weir Mitchell system of treatment for neurasthenia. In view of the war, American papers are recalling public attention to an address on ‘ The Medical Department in the Civil War/ de*

livered by Dr Weir Mitchell . before the Physicians’ Club of Chicago some time ago, and republished, in a recent issue of '1 he Journal of the American Medical Associaion. It bears brief but striking testimony to the superlative value of the Catholic Sisterhoods in war time. Very soon,’ said this distinguished physician, the question of women nurses arose. There were women like the Schuylers, the Lowells, and Miss Wormly, of whom I think with grateful remembrance. When we were in the neighborhood of great towns we had many volunteer women nurses. Some were terribly in earnest, utterly ignorant, and quite incapable of discipline. Others, if more efficient, were not punctual, and came and went as they pleased. A large proportion were early credited in the papers for patriotic services, and were seeking that notoriety which is the motive force of so many of the aspirations—and shall I say of the exasperations ? our own unrestful days. Our best women nurses were the too limited number of Roman Catholic Sisters.’

Some Irish ‘Highlanders’

One of the circumstances which makes it difficult to get a full and accurate return of the exact number of Irishmen in the ranks of the British Army is the well-known fact that many Irishmen arc enrolled in regiments with anything but Irish names. An irishman writing from Scotland to an Irish paper gives some striking examples, which are of especial interest in connection with the current discussion on Irish recruiting. A few nights ami, he says, ‘ I dropped into a recruiting meeting in Dixon Hall, Glasgow. The chairman introduced three of the soldiers who were wounded at the Battle of Mons. He described them as “ Scots Fusiliers,” and then gave their names—William O’Brien, William McLaughlin, and Bernard Callaghan. 1 interviewed them afterwards, and found the three were Irish Nationalists. Just last week the Dunfermline Free Press stated it was untrue that recruiting was slow in Dunfermline, and printed seventeen photos of “local” men who had joined the Seaforth Highlanders. Four of the “Highlanders” are Private William McMahon, Private T. Smith, and two young men of the name of William Tracey. The four are Irish Nationalists. There are many such “ Highlanders ” in Scottish regiments. When the returns arc completed from every Irish centre in Scotland and verified, anvone anxious to deny their accuracv can, by paying for the cost of printing the names and the places in Scotland where the men resided, obtain the list. Perusing the lists already received has been an eye-opener. Murphys and Gallaghers we have had back from the seat of war. In hospitals here there are many such “Highlanders.” In the hospitals—

I find on the list an O’Malley and Boyle, A Murphy, a Kelly, a Riley, and Doyle, A Casey, a Carney, a Rourke, and McCann, All strapping Highlanders, every man.’