would always make a great effort to keep quiet, however much the wound was hurting. They were wonderful people, and their pluck and endurance most touching. We used to begin by asking the surgeon to tell us any symptoms he had noticed, as this often helped in determining the direction that the bullet might have taken. I remember one interesting case of an officer. He had been brought in two days before, wounded under the right ear apparently by a bullet. The hole was minute and had bled very little, and he had no signs of cerebral disturbance whatever. I was doing the radioscoping that day, and the light was at its best. I searched through his head and found nothing, then his neck and shoulders; the surgeon had told me that he had not noticed any unusual symptoms. The officer himself then looked up and said, "Would it help you to know that when I was hit I coughed a good deal and choked up some blood?" Of course it helped a great deal! Down we went to his lungs, searched them thoroughly, and finally found the bullet low down on the left-hand side, below the diaphragm. It had gone through both lungs. We were always finding odd things too. Another time that I was sereening (we were at the hospital of a surgeon who was always a little difficult to work for, although we got to be the greatest friends afterwards), a man was brought in badly wounded in the groin. The light was not behaving very well, and it was difficult to see, added to which the room was not properly dark, I saw at once that there was something there, but what it was I could not see. The surgeon got very impatient, saying, "Nonsense; if you can see enough to be sure there is something, you must know what it is." One firm rule we had made, which was, never under any circumstances to allow ourselves to make any guesses. If we were not sure we always said so, and would not allow ourselves to be bullied into saying any more. This surgeon got rabid, because I would not even make a guess at what it was that the man had in his leg, and when I would only answer "Chi lo sa" to all his questions, said furiously, "You are no better than a professional radiographer; they all say that whenever they are asked a simple question!" The man was marked and taken away, and the work went on. I think that we had thirty-seven eases that afternoon in the one hospital, so the subject was not referred to again; but the next time we were sent for the surgeon oame up to us and said, "Have you yet thought what that foreign body could have been? It is quite safe to tell me now, because I have operated and knew what it was." I told him that I was sure it was not metal, and that it did not look like ordinary bone or like stone, as it had looked porous to me, but that might have been because my eyes were tired, as we had had a lot of work that day. He brought his hand from behind his back and produced a piece of another man's skull, which he had found exactly beneath the pencil mark I had made on the soldier's skin. Another interesting case was that of an officer who had been hit in the jaw. He was brought to us at Cormons to radiograph. We sooped him first and found a diamondshaped piece of metal just under the angle of the right jaw. He went back to hospital and was operated on the same day. Next day the surgeon brought him back, saying, "I have got the piece out. It was bone and not metal." That time I committed myself, and said, "I am sure it was metal that I saw." The surgeon, with a gentle grin, produced the bit of bone that he had taken out in the morning, saying, "I thought you would say that, so I brought the bone." I had to own that it was exactly the same shape and size, but insisted on screening him again. There was the bit of metal exactly where we had last seen it, and we took two more radiographs to prove its presence. To make a long story short, they operated again and found nothing, and finally sent the boy back to a field hospital where another operation was arranged for. He was just going to be given his anesthetic when he sat up, coughed violently, and choked the piece of metal up in the Surgeon's face. I suppose the two foreign bodies had lain ab solutely one under the other, thus making it appear as if there were only one. Our apparatus was very suocessful as a whole, and if we were asked to put together another mobile X-Ray machine we should make very few changes. When first we got out there we always had the same thing said to us: "We are delighted you have come, but your machine won't last long; we have had other mobile sets here, and they never last more than a month. Nothing can stand the knocking about of the roads." They gave us one month to stick it out without breaking down, and we managed eleven before anything went wrong, and then the breakdown was neither the fault of the apparatus nor of the roads. A piece of metal hit the dynamo and sliced the end off. It was despairing, as we were up to our eyes in work at the minute. Luckily we were dining with the King and Queen of Italy that very night, and at once, when we told them about what had happened, the Queen said she could lend us another dynamo. Arrangements were made to send down to Rome for it, and it arrived in three or four days. Of course, it had then to be fitted on in the place of the other, which took a little time; but, thanks to the General, who gave orders that it was to take precedence over other work at the Auto Park, we had it back and ready for work in a very few days. We had been on our way for an immediate operation, and luckily determined to take a radiograph at once without screening. We got a plate and turned on the light, which was beautiful. Our usual time exposure for head was ninety seconds; it ran perfectly for about fifty seconds, and suddenly the to a small Field Hospital far behind the lines when, without any warning, a big shell came whizzing over our heads, and burst in the little stream that ran alongside of the road. Falling in the soft mud of the stream, it spattered us all over with mud and stones. Mrs Hollings remarked gently that she machine struck work altothought that the car had been hit, but I denied it firmly, saying it was only stones; and we continued our journey a little faster, in case another came that way. gether. We hurried out to see what could be the matter, and found Whitehead already under the motor. I, being the smallest, orawled under too. The sight that met my eyes There was only this one was a sad one: the end of narrow lane to the hospital the dynamo was completely where we were going. Ar- sliced off by a piece of shell, rived at the hospital, we and all the wires had wound found every one in a great themselves round and round state of excitement, as White- the main shaft. You never head, who had already arrived saw such a mess in your life, in the other car, had said we and why it had worked at all were just behind him, and I cannot think. The still more they were quite sure we were extraordinary thing was that dead! But we soon reassured when we came to develop the them on that point, and got radiograph it was a beauty, the men on to unleading the and enabled the surgeon to machine. No one could think save the man's life! why the enemy should choose to waste time by shelling a little empty valley so far behind the lines, where there were no troops, and never had been any. While we were talking and the men were unloading, they sent three or four more over, all of them falling in a radius of about 500 yards. Within five minutes of the arrival of the first shell, a carabiniere hurried up on 8 bicycle to see if any one was hurt: they are a wonderfully efficient body, and always to be found when wanted. We We had a bad head-oase to X-Ray Our journey back was quite interesting too. We waited for some time, while the Austrians continued to put shells into the little valley, at about ten minutes' interval; and at last, as there had not been one for quite a long time, we made up our minds to start. I was driving this time, and we had hardly got half-way down the line when we both heard the gun that had fired all the other shots. We neither of us looked at each other or spoke, and continued firmly on our way. It was no use hurrying, as we might have the surgeons to operate. Of course, in damp weather we found that they were not always dry by nine o'clock, even when developed the night before, and then we had to have recourse to alcohol to dry them; but as a rule a night propped up in the rack would dry them in time to leave the house by 8.30 or 9 o'clock. run into it; and it was ne following morning in time for use stopping, as it might have landed on our heads; so on we went. We heard a long-drawn-out whine coming nearer and nearer; it finally landed with tremendous noise, bang in the middle of the road we had that moment left, carrying with it a big tree, and making a large hole in the ground. And the moral of this little episode is that it is no use fussing about where you are, as shells may come anywhere, even to the quietest and most unexpected places. As we were finding our work increasing daily, Mrs Hollings and I asked the Red Cross to send us out some one to develop plates for us. We found that often we only got home at ten o'clock at night when there was a push on, and that however late we were the plates had to be developed the same night, or they were not dry enough to send off the The Red Cross sent us out Mrs Hicks, who stayed with the section a little over her six months' engagement. She soon became most useful, not only in developing, but also in running the small Medical Supplies Stores apparatus. This was set up as a permanency in the house, so that if the neighbouring hospitals wanted to see anything in a hurry, and Mrs Hollings and I were out, she could run it for them. was not strong enough to knoek about on the roads, but did very well in the house. It IV. The days of a big action were always dreary for us, as the hospitals were too busy dressing the wounded, which were coming in in quantities, to want X-Rays, except in a few isolated cases where instant operations were needed. On the day of the taking of Gorizia we telephoned to the head of the Sanitá to ask if we should take up some dressings to the various dressing stations. On getting the answer we started off in our car, driven by Whitehead, to take bandages, cotton-wool, gauze, and other useful articles up to the farthest forward dressing stations that we could get to. Arrived at Lucenico, we found that the dressing station at the other end of the village we had been making for had had to come back, as the village was all on fire, and was being pretty heavily shelled, mostly by shrapnel, which were bursting in every direction. The moment the doctors of the dressing station saw us and our large box of surgical necessaries they all fell upon them, and although we remonstrated feebly, saying they were meant to go on to other stations as well, they took the whole lot! They did not hide their joy at the unexpected contribution, and we were very much pleased at the success of our expedition. Our car being now empty, there was no further necessity for our staying, and we were turning homewards when one of the officers asked if we would care to go up to the observation post on the hill above, as the guns were just going into Gorizia, and we should be able to see them oross the bridges from there. Of course we cared! ... and away we toiled along endless trenches and under covered passages, hearing all sorts of exciting things going on and unable to see out. The trenches are maddening for that! Then up and up, an officer who was leading us going horribly fast, excusing himself for hurrying us by saying that his gun was to be one of the first to lead over the bridge and he had very little time in which to get back. Half-way up we came upon rows of soldiers sitting on the side of the hill in their gas masks. They looked like a row of Spanish inquisitors, as they were all sitting in dead silence. Then we met the Colonel of the batteries of that hill, and he naturally wanted to know where we were going and whe we were. We were very much blown and purple in the face, and began pulling out our permits, explaining between gasps who we were. Before we could finish he burst out, "Oh yes, I know all about you; you are most welcome to ge up"; and turning to our guide said, "Make haste, you have only ten minutes to get to the top and down to your battery. We ran the rest of the way, and arrived speechless the observation post. Luckily our guide was not as blown as we were; he explained hastily who we were to the young observer, and then with a polite wave and salute was gone. We had our glasses, and we settled down to watch the most wonderful sight imaginable. at The whole landscape was one mass of flame and smoke. The village just beneath us was red with smouldering fire, and shrapnel were bursting, with their red smoke, every two minutes over it. The bridge over the Isonzo was broken in many places, and great heles and gaps showed the water through them. As we watched, we saw the first gun appearing down the road towards the bridge, going at a good smart trot. As it came fully into sight, it broke into a handgallop; a big high-explosive burst at the other end of the 1 The smoke of the Austrian shrapnel was red, and of the Italian shrapnel grey or white. |