jpiisqelliwcott!) Jtofes. FIRST AID TO THE WOUNDED. The recent partial mobilisation of the field hospitals and bearer companies at Aldershot and the Curragh have proved most completely that the hole system of supplying first aid to the wounded as practised in our service is based on a complete misapprehension of the conditions of modern warfare, and could not stand the test of active service for twenty-four hours. By the line the leavas advances, system, firing present ing its dead and wounded cumbering the ground it has crossed, small groups of four men each with a litter move over the ground, picking up the most urgent cases and carrying them, necessarily at a leisurely pace, to the dressing-stations established in the rear, from whence the wounded are ultimately conveyed to the field-hospitals. These dressing-stations are only a few hundred
Sept.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
1894.]
yards from the firing line, and on active service there is little doubt that after the first day's
severe
fighting
more
We plead with pointment of such
than half the surgeons
engaged would have been killed or wounded, and that all the bearer companies would have
been destroyed. The hail of bullets which will sweep over the battlefield of the future will have little regard for the Geneva Cross, and the surgeon will undoubtedly perish with the wounded
357
for the aplines similar to the Commission which was entrusted with the consideration of the question of the grievances of Hospital-Assistants, and, if it is possible for your Excellency to see your way to concede to our request, we would urge that there should be appointed, as members of the Commission, prominent retired Assistant-Surgeons. Not that for a moment doubt that we independent medical officials would further the cause we have at heart, but those who have themselves been Assistant-Surgeons and have had personal experience of the disabilities under which they laboured during their official careei*s, would be best fitted to draw up a scheme for the reorganisation of their service. your an
Excellency
enquiry,
on
whom he has come to succour. We would substitute for the present system an organisation which would attempt to grapple with the problem of treating the wounded by the aid of field hospitals well in the rear to which no wounded would be brought till the fighting had ceased. The idea of carrying off the wounded from a Modern battlefield while the fight is still raging is It would be impossible within the limited utterly absurd, and should be dismissed at once, while the system which would needlessly space of this petition to urge all that the Assosacrifice the lives of the majority of our army ciation desires to place before your
surgeons, at the very time when they most needed, is entirely indefensible,
would be and opposed to all experience and common-sense. The lot of the wounded in the next European war will be terrible in case any ; it will not enough be improved a massacre of the doctors. by
GRIEVANCES
OF ASSISTANT-SURGEONS.
The of
following petition representing grievances Assistant-Surgeons has been forwarded to the
Government by the Medical Association of India, Juggo Bundo Bose is President and
of which Dr.
Dr. Fernandez and Mr. Sandel are Secretaries The many reforms which local Governments have initiated and carried to a successful issue, in recent in the hope that we years, encourage us shall not have' to appeal to your Excellency in vain', for the institution of an independent enquiry into the position, pay, emoluments and retiring pensions of those on whose behalf we take the liberty of addressing you. While other departments of the public service, under every local administration, have undergone considerable reformation in regard to status and the claims of those in the Medical of the Government have been ignored, till His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor
emoluments,
Service except
of
Bengal appointed a Commission to enquire into the longstanding grievances of HospitalAssistants. These subordinates form the lowest
grade and
of the
we
having
can
been
medical servants of Government, a commencement only hope that made by a local Goveinment at the
the Government of India will be disposed to?insist upon similar efforts in regard to the higher official grades and other members of the medical profession. Webejr to assure your Excellency that, if an enquiry is instituted into the claims which the Assistant-
lowest
runo-,
unprejudiced
Surgeons ur^e for consideration by Government, the result will be a convincing advocacy for
reform.
Excellency
in reference to the subject-matter of their appeal Even briefly stated, the to you. many grounds upon which it would have to base its plea for reform would weary your Excellencjr. The
Association, therefore,
desires in this rethan to plead for a Commission, to enquire into the disabilities under which the Assistant-Surgeons in the service of the Government labour. The members assure your Excellency that those disabilities are not imaginary, or of recent occurrence. They are | only too real, and press with undue severity upon perhaps the best educated, the hardest worked, and the most loyal servants of the State. We say nothing of the humane and healing spirit of their profession. Then again the prospects and emoluments of the service remain to-day as they were, when the service was first called into existence, half a century ago, and while the servants of Government in every other department have had their status and prospects advanced, the claims of those, who heal the sick and afflicted, and carry light and hope, and blessing into the homes of the millions of the people have, up to now, not been considered worthy of advancement.
presentation
to do
no
more
In educational qualifications the Assistantare in no way inferior to the great of those who fill the grades of the majority Deputy Magistracy and Deputy in the country. The former are compelled to undergo a longer and more crucial collegiate course, to bear a severe strain of hospital walking, and to pass, not once, but again and again, public examinations, their success in which does stamp them as men possessed of intellect of no And after they have mean order. successfully every stage of the educational through passed tests to which they have to submit, they start as Assistant-Surgeons on Rs. 50, and no matter how useful, and energetic, and distinguished
Surgeons
Collectorships
INDIAN MEDICAL"GAZETTE.
358
subsequent careers, they can never rise beyond a salary of Rs. 200 to 300 per mensem. On the other hand, the Deput}' Magistrate and their
who is in no way his on Rs. 200, and starts in abilitv, may superior rise solely by right of seniority to Rs. 800 or even Rs. 1,000 per mensem. This is only one instance of the grievances which the Association desires to place before your Excellency. We could multiply the disadvantages of Assistant-Surgeons by scores and yet not exhaust the list. But we will not weary your Excellency with their statement in We are prepared, however, this appeal to you. if your Excellency desires it, to draw up a detailed statement and submit it for your conMeanwhile we beg sideration. to assure again O O your Excellency that the grievances of the servants of the State to whom we refer are real, and press for reform, and we repeat the hope that our appeal to you will meet with your Excellency's kind consideration. the
Deputy Collector,
whom we have the privilege of of the earnest We have knowledge O spirit in which, ever since your Excellency undertook to govern this country, you have set yourself steadily to introduce reform and repress abuse. The case we have ventured to lay before your Excellency for reform admits of no doubt, as to the urgent necessity there is for change, and if we have impressed your Excellency that that necessity exists, we may safely leave the issue to your decision. For we are satisfied, as we have said before, that if we have made out a case?and we have endeavoured to do so with all the earnestness we can command ?your Excellency will not allow our appeal to you to have been made to no purpose. We know
addressing. O
The undermentioned officers of the Army Medical Staff, whose tour of foreign service will expire during the trooping season of 1894-95, will proceed to England, and will be detailed by the Principal Medical Officer, Her Majesty's Forces in India, for duty with troops on the homeward voyages.
requiring passage for their apply to the General Officer Commanding the district in which they are serv2.
Medical Officers
families should
who will arrange with the Officer Commandat the port of embarkation for allotment of the authorised accommodation in the troopship to which they will be detailed:? Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel W. S. M. Price, in exchange with Surgeon-LieutenantColonel M. D. O'Connell. Brigade Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonels D. C. Grose and J. Williamson, MB., in exchange with J. Riddick. Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Clery, MB., in exchange with Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel
ing, ing
Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel
R. W.
Mapleton.
[Sept.
1894.
Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel J. McNamara,M.D.> exchange with Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Corry. Surgeon-Majors G. H. LeMotte, M.D., M. R. R3^an, m.d., J. Boulger, E. A. Roche, G. A. Hughes, in G.
M.B., W.
Heffernan,
with
and J. R.
m.b., in
Dodd,
T.
Surgeon-Majors
A. W.
ex-
F. and F. J. Jencken, m.b. Surgeon-Captains H. S. McGill and J. R. Mallins, in exchange with Surgeon-Captain R. C.
change
Carleton,
Wilkinson,
Johnston.
Surgeon-Captains A. P. H. Griffiths, A. R. Aldridge, m.b,, C. J. Macdonald, m.d., H. W. Austin, R. W. Wright, J. Keatly, G. Scott, M.B.,
H. J. Pocock, C. R. and E. M. Hassard.
Elliott,
m.d., J. C.
Weir,
M.B.,
Sept.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
1894.]
yards from the firing line, and on active service there is little doubt that after the first day's
severe
fighting
more
We plead with pointment of such
than half the surgeons
engaged would have been killed or wounded, and that all the bearer companies would have
been destroyed. The hail of bullets which will sweep over the battlefield of the future will have little regard for the Geneva Cross, and the surgeon will undoubtedly perish with the wounded
357
for the aplines similar to the Commission which was entrusted with the consideration of the question of the grievances of Hospital-Assistants, and, if it is possible for your Excellency to see your way to concede to our request, we would urge that there should be appointed, as members of the Commission, prominent retired Assistant-Surgeons. Not that for a moment doubt that we independent medical officials would further the cause we have at heart, but those who have themselves been Assistant-Surgeons and have had personal experience of the disabilities under which they laboured during their official careei*s, would be best fitted to draw up a scheme for the reorganisation of their service. your an
Excellency
enquiry,
on
whom he has come to succour. We would substitute for the present system an organisation which would attempt to grapple with the problem of treating the wounded by the aid of field hospitals well in the rear to which no wounded would be brought till the fighting had ceased. The idea of carrying off the wounded from a Modern battlefield while the fight is still raging is It would be impossible within the limited utterly absurd, and should be dismissed at once, while the system which would needlessly space of this petition to urge all that the Assosacrifice the lives of the majority of our army ciation desires to place before your
surgeons, at the very time when they most needed, is entirely indefensible,
would be and opposed to all experience and common-sense. The lot of the wounded in the next European war will be terrible in case any ; it will not enough be improved a massacre of the doctors. by
GRIEVANCES
OF ASSISTANT-SURGEONS.
The of
following petition representing grievances Assistant-Surgeons has been forwarded to the
Government by the Medical Association of India, Juggo Bundo Bose is President and
of which Dr.
Dr. Fernandez and Mr. Sandel are Secretaries The many reforms which local Governments have initiated and carried to a successful issue, in recent in the hope that we years, encourage us shall not have' to appeal to your Excellency in vain', for the institution of an independent enquiry into the position, pay, emoluments and retiring pensions of those on whose behalf we take the liberty of addressing you. While other departments of the public service, under every local administration, have undergone considerable reformation in regard to status and the claims of those in the Medical of the Government have been ignored, till His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor
emoluments,
Service except
of
Bengal appointed a Commission to enquire into the longstanding grievances of HospitalAssistants. These subordinates form the lowest
grade and
of the
we
having
can
been
medical servants of Government, a commencement only hope that made by a local Goveinment at the
the Government of India will be disposed to?insist upon similar efforts in regard to the higher official grades and other members of the medical profession. Webejr to assure your Excellency that, if an enquiry is instituted into the claims which the Assistant-
lowest
runo-,
unprejudiced
Surgeons ur^e for consideration by Government, the result will be a convincing advocacy for
reform.
Excellency
in reference to the subject-matter of their appeal Even briefly stated, the to you. many grounds upon which it would have to base its plea for reform would weary your Excellencjr. The
Association, therefore,
desires in this rethan to plead for a Commission, to enquire into the disabilities under which the Assistant-Surgeons in the service of the Government labour. The members assure your Excellency that those disabilities are not imaginary, or of recent occurrence. They are | only too real, and press with undue severity upon perhaps the best educated, the hardest worked, and the most loyal servants of the State. We say nothing of the humane and healing spirit of their profession. Then again the prospects and emoluments of the service remain to-day as they were, when the service was first called into existence, half a century ago, and while the servants of Government in every other department have had their status and prospects advanced, the claims of those, who heal the sick and afflicted, and carry light and hope, and blessing into the homes of the millions of the people have, up to now, not been considered worthy of advancement.
presentation
to do
no
more
In educational qualifications the Assistantare in no way inferior to the great of those who fill the grades of the majority Deputy Magistracy and Deputy in the country. The former are compelled to undergo a longer and more crucial collegiate course, to bear a severe strain of hospital walking, and to pass, not once, but again and again, public examinations, their success in which does stamp them as men possessed of intellect of no And after they have mean order. successfully every stage of the educational through passed tests to which they have to submit, they start as Assistant-Surgeons on Rs. 50, and no matter how useful, and energetic, and distinguished
Surgeons
Collectorships
INDIAN MEDICAL"GAZETTE.
358
subsequent careers, they can never rise beyond a salary of Rs. 200 to 300 per mensem. On the other hand, the Deput}' Magistrate and their
who is in no way his on Rs. 200, and starts in abilitv, may superior rise solely by right of seniority to Rs. 800 or even Rs. 1,000 per mensem. This is only one instance of the grievances which the Association desires to place before your Excellency. We could multiply the disadvantages of Assistant-Surgeons by scores and yet not exhaust the list. But we will not weary your Excellency with their statement in We are prepared, however, this appeal to you. if your Excellency desires it, to draw up a detailed statement and submit it for your conMeanwhile we beg sideration. to assure again O O your Excellency that the grievances of the servants of the State to whom we refer are real, and press for reform, and we repeat the hope that our appeal to you will meet with your Excellency's kind consideration. the
Deputy Collector,
whom we have the privilege of of the earnest We have knowledge O spirit in which, ever since your Excellency undertook to govern this country, you have set yourself steadily to introduce reform and repress abuse. The case we have ventured to lay before your Excellency for reform admits of no doubt, as to the urgent necessity there is for change, and if we have impressed your Excellency that that necessity exists, we may safely leave the issue to your decision. For we are satisfied, as we have said before, that if we have made out a case?and we have endeavoured to do so with all the earnestness we can command ?your Excellency will not allow our appeal to you to have been made to no purpose. We know
addressing. O
The undermentioned officers of the Army Medical Staff, whose tour of foreign service will expire during the trooping season of 1894-95, will proceed to England, and will be detailed by the Principal Medical Officer, Her Majesty's Forces in India, for duty with troops on the homeward voyages.
requiring passage for their apply to the General Officer Commanding the district in which they are serv2.
Medical Officers
families should
who will arrange with the Officer Commandat the port of embarkation for allotment of the authorised accommodation in the troopship to which they will be detailed:? Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel W. S. M. Price, in exchange with Surgeon-LieutenantColonel M. D. O'Connell. Brigade Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonels D. C. Grose and J. Williamson, MB., in exchange with J. Riddick. Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Clery, MB., in exchange with Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel
ing, ing
Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel
R. W.
Mapleton.
[Sept.
1894.
Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel J. McNamara,M.D.> exchange with Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Corry. Surgeon-Majors G. H. LeMotte, M.D., M. R. R3^an, m.d., J. Boulger, E. A. Roche, G. A. Hughes, in G.
M.B., W.
Heffernan,
with
and J. R.
m.b., in
Dodd,
T.
Surgeon-Majors
A. W.
ex-
F. and F. J. Jencken, m.b. Surgeon-Captains H. S. McGill and J. R. Mallins, in exchange with Surgeon-Captain R. C.
change
Carleton,
Wilkinson,
Johnston.
Surgeon-Captains A. P. H. Griffiths, A. R. Aldridge, m.b,, C. J. Macdonald, m.d., H. W. Austin, R. W. Wright, J. Keatly, G. Scott, M.B.,
H. J. Pocock, C. R. and E. M. Hassard.
Elliott,
m.d., J. C.
Weir,
M.B.,
