It triumphs over wrath as good triumphs over evil. Direct
descendant of the cross of the Christian faith, it carries on to every
battlefield the words of the Man of Peace: "Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy."
* * * * *
The care of the wounded in war has been the problem of the ages.
Richard the Lion-Hearted took a hospital ship to the coast of
Palestine. The German people of the Middle Ages had their wounded in
battle treated by their wives, who followed the army for that purpose.
It remained for Frederick the First of Prussia to establish a military
service in connection with a standing army.
With the invention of firearms battlefield surgery faced new problems,
notably hemorrhage, and took a step forward to meet these altered
conditions. It was a French surgeon who solved the problem of
hemorrhage by tying the torn blood vessels above the injury. To
England goes the credit for the prevention of sepsis, as far as it may
be prevented on a battlefield.
As far as it may be prevented on a battlefield! For that is the
question that confronts the machinery of mercy to-day. Transportation
to the hospitals has been solved, to a large extent, by motor
ambulances, by hospital trains, by converted channel steamers
connecting the Continent with England.
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