Naval Battles and Wounded Sailors
By L. A. S.
THE effect of modern rapid-fire and heavy guns in a battle at sea will be such, concludes a United States naval surgeon, Dr. H. D. Wilson, that it will be impossible for the medical attendants on board a ship, unless their number is largely increased, to give attention to more than a small number of the wounded during an engagement, and the great majority of those injured must be left to look after themselves, thus greatly adding to the horrors of a naval conflict. Dr. Wilson bases his conclusions on the results which attended the fight between the Russian cruiser “Variag” and a Japanese squadron, off Chempulpho, at which time he was stationed on the United States gunboat “Vicksburg,” in Chempulpho harbor. Although the rapid-fire batteries of the ships were not used at all during the action, the distance between the ships being too great, and the firing lasted only twenty-five minutes, over one hundred men on the “Variag” were disabled by the fragments of shells which struck and burst about the ship. L. A. S.