Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/398

 352

AMBULANCE

mental stretcher-bearers to the number of two per company ■who have previously been instructed in first aid and in the carrying of the wounded on stretchers. These men leave their arms behind and wear the Red Cross armlets so as to be under the protection of the Geneva Convention, but when a battle takes the form of magazine rifle fire, con-

Fig. 1.—Type of British Army Ambulance. tinued for many hours without either side advancing or retiring much, it may not be the fault of the enemy that the bearers and medical officers are sometimes shot in attending to the wounded. The bearer company, into whose charge the wounded man next passes, is composed of three officers, thirteen non-commissioned officers, and forty-eight privates of the Royal Army Medical Corps, with a detachment of the Army Service Corps for transport duties. There is one such bearer company to every brigade, and six to an army corps, and their duties are to collect and succour the wounded on the battlefield, handing them over to the field hospitals, with which the companies are closely associated, though separately organized. In the Indian

army the bearer company is provided pro tern, from the personnel of the field hospital when there is a battle, and then i everts to the hospital again after it is over. The teaching of the South African war rather points to the advantage of the Indian plan, for after action the bearer company personnel should be available to give the muchneeded help in the work of the field hospital. The bearers afford the wounded any treatment necessary, supply water

and sedatives, and then carry them back on stretchers to the collecting station in the rear, whence they are conveyed to the dressing station in waggons or other form of transport (mule cacolets or litters in mountainous districts where wheeled carriages cannot go, camel cacolets and litters in the Sudan, dhoolies or Lushai dandies in India, hammocks on the West Coast of Africa, or sedan chairs in China). Cacolets are seats slung on each side of a pack saddle. British ambulance waggons (Figs. 1, 3), which are built very strongly to stand rough roads, are of several patterns. They have been reported upon as heavy and uncomfortable in the South African war, and they can only carry two men so seriously wounded as to have to lie down, besides those seated; but a new vehicle has been tried which will convey four cases lying down as well as six seated, or fourteen all seated. All patterns of waggons weigh from 17| to 18| cwt. At the dressing station—which ought to be out of range of the firing, and near a good water supply—the patient is made as comfortable as possible ; nourishment and stimulants are administered, and he is then taken to the field hospital. There is one field hospital to each brigade, but since in larger organizations extra accommodation is required for the corps troops not included in brigades, such as the ammunition supply columns, balloon and bridging detachments, &c., the total number of field hospitals for an army corps (roughly speaking 40,000 men) is ten. In times of great stress when it is desirable to remove the wounded quickly from the field, and there are no roads, or wheeled transport is not obtainable, it is becoming the custom to employ bearers in large numbers, temporarily engaged, whom a little training will render fairly efficient for the purpose. This was done in Natal at the battle of Spion Kop, and also in the Egyptian campaigns, where the local troops not required for the fighting line were requisitioned, and the arrangement was in both instances considered successful. In India the rank and file of the Royal Army Medical Corps are not employed, the bearer work being carried out by natives called kahars, specially enlisted. These men are bearers by caste, and are most expert in carrying the dhoolies and dandies which are used instead of stretchers —except those used by the regimental (European) stretcher-bearers—and their courage on the battlefield is the admiration of all beholders. The same remark applies to the bheesties or water-carriers, who also accompany the troops into action. The ambulance organization of the army in India thus differs materially from that elsewhere. The main difference is that, as already stated, the rank and file of the Royal Army Medical Corps are not employed, although the commissioned officers are. The warrant and non-commissioned ranks are replaced by a most useful body of men of Anglo-Indian or Eurasian birth called the Subordinate Medical Department, the members of which, now called assistant surgeons, formerly apothecaries, receive a three years’ training in medical work at the Indian organizauniversities, and are competent to perform the tion of the compounding of medicines and to undertake the Indian management of all but the most serious cases of Army' illness and injury. The privates of the Royal Army Medical