Relief Units for our Troops

Relief Units for our Troops

War Wounds and Influenza the Least of Our Worries

While many soldiers have come back from the front with physical wounds and trauma, doctors and nurses at home are ready for any calamity that might arise. In New York City, and indeed, in many cities around the country, physicians are forming emergency relief units "for service during any calamity in any part of the USA." These doctors are meeting weekly with the police and hospitals, and are keeping informed of the situation in order to protect our citizens. They are training volunteers in first aid and crime control, and plans have been made to turn many of the larger public buildings into relief centers, should the need arrive. In addition, our own men have escaped the epidemic raging through German forces. "Conditions among the civil population of Germany are terrible," states a Dutch tailor who recently returned from Germany. "Workmen die at their work from lack of nourishment." With the country underfed and left in the mud, is it any wonder that so many of them succumbed to the infection?

However, there are many more wounds left by this war that cannot necessarily be seen by the eye or healed with tonics and pills. Some of our soldiers return from the front mentally unsound, many so shell-shocked that they cannot recognize their own families, or they cry to themselves at hearing any sound other than their own voice. Some allied surgeons have claimed that the physically fit soldiers are immune to shell-shock, and that only the neurotic or "otherwise suffering" soldiers are at risk. Experience has shown us that seeing your comrades injured or dead around you, and hearing the whistle of shells around you at all times is enough to count as suffering. After all, isn't this why the government sends soldiers suffering from shell shock back to the front a short time after they come home? When we have so many cases of people being easily committed for lunacy, such as in the case of Leonard Abercrombie, who was committed by his brother under highly irregular circumstances--why is there so much confusion on the topic of insanity? Some doctors have begun to actually treat victims of shell shock by having them listen to music, surrounded by the sounds and beauty of the opera.