In the Academy of Medicine Dr. Roussey brought up the point that due to the helmet the number of cases of sudden death from wounds in the head had been so decreased that the number of wounded with head injuries treated in the hospitals had materially increased.
The French helmet proved such a success that Belgium, Serbia, Russia and Roumania equipped their troops with the same model. The French helmet has a bursting bomb as insignia on its front and is light blue or khaki color, depending on whether it is worn by the metropolitan, the French home army or the French colonial army.
THE BELGIAN HELMET.
The Belgian helmet is khaki-colored, with the Belgian lion on the front; the Italian, greenish blue, with no insignia; the Serbian, khaki-colored, with the Serbian coat of arms; the Russian, khaki-colored, with the Russian coat of arms, and the Roumanian, blue-gray, with the Roumanian coat of arms.
The French have made more than 12,000,000 helmets, using about 12,000 tons of steel. In other words, a ton of steel will make 1,000 helmets. The British also equipped their troops with a steel helmet, which has no ridge running from front to rear, as has the Adrian, no decorations, and a rather wide brim, which runs all the way round. It is of a khaki color.
The Germans issued to a certain number of their men, generally those most exposed in trench fighting, a steel helmet considerably heavier than any of the allied helmets. It has a much higher crown, and comes down more over the eyes and the sides and back of the head.
All these helmets are supported by means of a leather skull cap inside, which fitting closely to the head, distributes the weight over the whole of the skull, instead of simply around the edge of it, as is the case with ordinary headgear.
Of course, these helmets will not protect against high velocity projectiles. However, as they do protect the wearer from low velocity projectiles, and as these are, because of infection, often as fatal as severe wounds, it can easily be seen how much good has been accomplished.
A French writer in La Nature shows that 332 out of 479 abnormal wounds were caused by shrapnel and pieces of shell having a low velocity.
In 13 out of 15 cases of lung wounds, the projectiles did not have velocity enough to completely traverse the body and come out.