At the moment when the German army is at our gates, and will probably enter the city, the municipal authorities request you to preserve all your presence of mind, and all calmness necessary to permit you to undergo this trial.
There must not be any manifestations, any riotous gatherings, any outcries to trouble the tranquility of the streets. Public Service, Charity, Health, and street maintenance should continue to be safe. You must co-operate with us. You must remain in the city to help the unfortunate. We shall remain with you at our post to defend your interests.
It does not devolve upon you, the population of an unfortified city, to alter events. It does devolve upon you not to aggravate the consequences. To this end it is necessary to keep silence, dignity and prudence.
We rely upon you, you may rely upon us.
Reims, September 3, 1914.
DR. LANGLET, Mayor.
Mr. Butler said to visit European capitals is to witness a revelation difficult to convey in mere words. Soldiers of every nationality are treated by the expert and world famed in medicine. Human wrecks, victims of shot and shell, are repaired and rebuilt. It matters little whether a man is friend or foe, as long as a spark of life is there, he is picked tenderly from the trench and everything known to medical science done to bring about his recovery.
The mind is filled with horror and wonder of it all. New thoughts bombard the mind as one looks on. A man is brought in. His face is practically shot away. It seems that even should he recover he will be so disfigured that life will not be worth the living. The Carrel solution is applied. By plastic surgery and other means the disfigured mass is shaped. In a few short weeks the man again begins to resemble a human being and eventually is well, with little more than a few indistinct scars. Not infrequently he returns to the trenches. Some of the things that shock the mind are metal jaws, screened behind false beards, artificial noses, ears, cheeks, eyes and limbs. Sometimes when a man is facially disfigured beyond repair, that is, when nature can never replace the countenance, a copper mask is fitted. These sculptors in flesh-and-blood do their work with such precision and accuracy that it is startling and cannot be believed unless it is seen.
The war has seen the springing up of many hospitals of special character. There are groups of institutions where only faces are treated, eyes, ears and nose, maimed limbs, etc. Medical attention in most cases begins in the trenches and the patient is carefully watched while being transported to the hospital. By sterilizing wounds shortly after they occur, infection and pus are robbed of their chance to hinder nature and the patient recovers in a few weeks from a frightful wound that if infected would take that many months. There are many things of today that help in the preservation of human life. The highly developed X-ray has played an important part in this great war. Electricity, new antiseptics and anaesthetics have been at the finger's end of the skilled medical profession, to work what can honestly be called miracles and wonders.