Combed Out

conduct? On whom does the burden of blood and treasure weigh most heavily? How

se of Commons, J

ring curses in his sleep. Others were snoring loudly. I lay awake for a long time, staring into the black darkness of the marquee. Suddenly-it must have been

ey stop it once and for all." Another groaned deeply and

led with a terrible dejection,

und of innumerable motor-cars coming and going

garments, bustling up and down, or standing in groups around the other tabl

d'you think you're here for?" It was the sur

. He breathed feebly and irregularly. The surgeon bent over him and asked him if he had been wounded long. He answered in low, hoarse whispers that he had been lying in the mud and rain for several days. Then he turned his eyes up so that only the whites were visible. They remained rigidly fixed in that position. He received a dorsal injection, being too weak for chloroform. The shattered thigh was painted with picric acid and the tourniquet tightened a

g-hold thi

he injured spot, and depressing the blade cut deeply down to the bone. The blood gushed up suddenly, formed a pool on the towels and sheet underneath, overflowed the edge of the table, and splashed down on to the floor in a cascade. The operator paused a moment and then, while the blood continued to stream from the wound, he cut round the bone until flesh was entirely severed f

d that leg-give a help here a

reath came and went. Above the hole was a big red patch. I unwound the bandages one by one. Gradually the face was revealed. Between the mouth with black,

ages, held up limbs for amputation, fetched splints, padding, gauze, or new bandages. I was too busy to think or to feel a

but masses of clotted blood, lumps of torn flesh, and bits of bone tied up in blood-sodden linen parcels

ed leg, but the man gave such long-drawn piercing shrieks that he had to be left alone. He was sent to the resuscitation ward to recover strength a little, for he was very weak through loss of blo

t. Sometimes they would all howl in chorus like cats on a roof. Indeed the weird and ter

most glorious country on earth and that he had done his best to be a good soldier. Then he was seized by a fit of violent weeping, while someone at the other end of the theatre was shouting with intense fury: "I

eached from knee to hip and exposed the thigh-bone. The padding was removed, but as soon as the raw flesh was touched he threw

sh to the spot, he plunged head foremost and crashed down on to the floor. We picked him up, but his mind seeme

erform each operation, that it was not humanly possible to devote sufficient time to each individual case. Gas was the most merciful anodyne, but it could only be used for brief operations. Under its influence men became unconscious quickly and w

it in big drops. He was too weak to struggle, but his eyes were staring in a way that was terrible to see. I held the foot and an orderly held the stump while the saw grated harshly as it cut through the bone, and

y, blood-sodden mass of padding. I observed that his breath

oxygen-lo

it could be disentangled. At last the end of the tube was pushed into the mouth of the dying man. The tap of the cylinder was tu

e and the an?sth

one's empty-your damned careless

in his pockets for the key to the cupboard in which the reserve cylinders were kept, but he could

-the man's dying-it'll b

t last he found the key on a shelf. He unlocked the cupboard, fetched out a new cylinder, and placed it beside the table.

a man dead through your neglect. Don't you bloody well let it occur again,

t of the theatre and muttered

lies went to the

hose who died on the operating tab

y. There it would be sewn up in an army blanket, ready for burial. And then a telegram would be sent

re tired of cutting off legs and arms-it was "so monot

ttle drops of blood. "A most unpleasant case." He was quickly replaced, however, by another who lay on a stretcher white and motionless. His tunic had been unbuttoned. His shirt had been pulled loosely over a big, round object that appeared to

d, here's some

or "belly cases" as they were humorously termed. Captain Wheeler, who had called him, was interested in

aptain Wheeler, who spoke in the affected d

ad come over from his table holding a blo

luck-I've only h

k to his work. In a few minutes he was ready for the nex

ange, anyhow-I'm fed

-clotted hair was an irregular patch where a piece of bo

at it with eager c

ure Captain Maynard would so lo

licate knee operation. After a little delay

se we have to put up with these annoyances-horrors of war, you know!" He laughed and the

and heartless. They were simply ordinary human beings and the ordinary human being, however he may be horrifie

ht o'clock the day-shift came to an end and the night-shift began. We had no time to clear the theatre. The new surgeons

nd several of them had blue rings ro

sters, "I do feel so sorry for the

other "head speci

est. Go to the Prep. yourself

up against another. A man was lying on each, generally silent and motionless. Only a few were groaning feebly. We selected

in streaks of red blood trickling down made a strange picture. The largest wound was just above one ear. A local an?sthetic was injected and the skin round the injury pushed back. With a pair of curved pincers the surgeon broke away bits of bone from the edge of the hole. Then he pushed his little finger deep

shattered right arm and a right thigh. He called his colleague, Captain Calthrop, o

s scalpel Captain Dowden removed all that was left of the eyeball, a dark, amorphous mess. The wound was cleaned, dressed and bandaged. The boy regained consciousness. For a moment he looked vacantly round. Then he slowly raised his han

ddle of the raw flesh a short length of undamaged bone was visible. Nothing serious, and only a flesh wound. The man inhaled the chloroform and ether fumes

he table with uncertain steps. An orderly helped him on to it. He lay back and turned his head to one side and looked towards the next table on which Captain Calthrop was amputating an arm. It came off in the hands of an order

observed what was

ut the next man. Let's ha

er take orf me a

e not, don't

'urt me, si

ether now. Be a man! You w

egan to unwind the bandage, but th

ry painful, sir

istaken for an officer, said in

me gas and send yer orf to sleep. You won't feel nothin' and yer a

andage, but the man began

he surgeon

Pull yourself together a

, no, sir, never, sir-it's very painful, sir, very painfu

little he yelled and writhed. The surgeon at

feet while the bandage was quickly removed. He shri

. When the wound had been excised and dressed, the man was carried away and replaced by another whose right leg was thickly wrapped up. The wrapping was removed and revealed a shattered knee and two toes dangling from the foot. Captain Wycherley snipped them off with a pair of sci

piece of bone. Captain Calthrop was attending to a "belly case"-he had cut a longitudinal slit in his patient's abdomen and both his han

nd now the wound stretched from below the knee almost as far as the hip. It was shallow, but as broad as a hand and of a greyish-green colour. The man breathed feebly and his eyes were turned up so that only the whites were visible. He received gas. Amputation was impossible for the gangrene had reached too far. The wound was excised, but the surgeon said: "I'm afraid he's done for, poor fellow." The man's breathin

many left in the Prep.," said

and reported that ther

s amongs

or fiv

still re

our ago. There won't be any mor

, at two or three in the morning if we'

came in with

hurry-we haven't got many more to d

t was blue and cold. I raised it, so that the surgeon could look at the under-surface of the leg. As I did so, the calf gave way in the middle. He told me angrily to pull harder. I pulled until the leg was taut again. The muscles and the sinews

lab for th

to speak French and ridiculing each other's efforts. Captain Wycherley began to hum a tune and wave his amputation knife like the conductor of an orchestra, whereupon the others locked arms and danced up and down the theatre, t

throp, you reall

e was lying. He smiled uneasily and said to an orderly: "Tie up his jaw and his feet and hands an

t the teeth clicked, and kept it in position by tying a bandage right round t

door and shou

d the dead man off the stretcher. We walked on, but did not reach the mortuary, although we should have done so long ago. We put the stretcher down and looked around. The darkness enveloped us like a mantle. We could see nothing except a few shafts of light that shone through chinks in the walls of the distant operating theatre. Roughly guessing our direction we continued our journey. I felt a tent rope brushing against my leg. I stepped over it and encountered another, while the orderly knocked his foot against a peg. We put the stret

e theatre all the thre

n with a case, and

n, sir. There's about half

ong-let's get

ed in grey was lying. His dark hair was matted. His boyish face was intensely white. His eyes w

a gentleman?" aske

id one of the be

m on the

unwound from the German boy's right forearm, which was h

s arm's got

would be necessary to remove hi

puzzled expression. Then he suddenly broke into a wail, like

lender wrist. The arm was rapidly amputated. The red stump with the disc of severed bone in the mid

a great number of small wounds caused by minute bomb fragments. The mask was clapped over his mouth and

ist got angr

them-you blasted race of murderers-I'm sorry for th

the back. The bullet had passed through the lower part of his lung, and then th

about there doing nothing-make yourself useful. Tell him he'll be w

nswered in a d

nt-the English wounded are no

he knows about it!... A

ood for the rich,

ed warfare-ask him if he

tt, don't ask me any more, giv

atic! Send him off to sle

d down from the stool, and searched the pockets of his helpless patient. He did not find much, however, only a

to his stool. Of course this was not stealing, it was merely "scrounging" o

g the bare skin between two fingers and cutting the flesh, throwing bleed

tedium of the work when his an?sthet

thetic? I'll have a shot at surgery-I've never don

ied Captain Calthrop,

tain Wycherley at the next t

said his

e an?sthetics. It was, perhaps, rather a dangerous thing to d

act he even suggested that it was "a bit thick," but

h, the four surgeons and an?

so bad as I thou

ait till you ge

affair. I thought my man was going to ch

hat only required dressing were brought in, a

oped out gaily to have tea and cakes in th

r we still had to put everyth

and bone were littered everywhere. The gowns of the orderlies were stained and bespattered with blood and yellow picric acid. Each

ater became dark red. We scrubbed till our arms ached. With our bare hands we brushed the bits of flesh, skin and bone into little heaps and threw them into the buckets, and the

a corner. We loaded them on to a stretcher and carried them

em were clammy and slippery to the touch. Others were hard an

shirts on separate heaps. I was holding a shirt when I became aware of a tickling sensation across one hand. I h

r our own marquee. As we passed the prisone

a Fritz been 'ollerin' out all the ev

rs in two rows. Most of them were asleep, but on

n Arm, oder ha

hat 'e wants-I 'xpect it's somethin' ter do with

had been taken off at the shoulder. He was silent for a mome

rade, tell me-is my arm st

m," I said to the orderly, who turned to t

anything-for God's sake tell me if it's

in his pillow and s

y to remove his arm, but that he would live

stared at me and the

od, I shall live, live, live. O du li

atisfaction and closed his eyes and

that there could be any ha

came in. Yer've done 'im a world o' good. I took to the pore bloke some'ow-I allus feels pertickler sorry

answered, and

ed in the most infamous and sordid war that was ever fought, and yet you have remained uncont

r marquee and

eyes and blue, distorted faces of suffocating men. They thronged the darkness in ever increasing numbers and then they arranged themselves into a kind of gigantic wheel that began to turn slowly r