CarryOn A Magazine on the Reconstruction of Disabled Soldiers and Sailors Vol. 1 July No. 10 1919 The Best Reason for Reconstruction Edited by the Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army Published for the Surgeon General by the American Red Cross The Creed of the Disabled Soldier Once more to be useful—to see pity in the eyes of my friends replaced with commendation—to work, produce, provide, and to feel that I have a place in the world—seeking no favors and given none—a MAN among MEN in spite of this physical handicap. CARRY ON Volume 1 JULY, 1919 Number 10 Edited by the Office of the Surgeon General, U. S. Army Contents PAGE Frontispiece Dr. Livingston Farrand .... 2 The Wounded in Mind Dr. Thomas W. Salmon .... 3 Help Us Help You Captain Arthur II. Samuels . 7 To Our Disabled Soldiers Charles Hanson Towne .... 7 Concerning Soldiers and Art Helen L. Slack 8 An Open Letter Rupert Hughes 11 Recreation in Hospitals Elbert K. Frelwell 12 Editorials 16 Sure Signs of Peace Lieut. Bartow V. Matteson ... 18 Twice a Deserter 19 Down, But Not Out Robert S. Brookings 20 They Shall Not Pass: A Poem . J. W. Jorgensen 21 The Soldiers Who Remained Here . Major Joseph Bondy 22 Reconstruction at Fort McHenry . Major Wilson H. Henderson . 23 the Get-A-Way Robert E. IIewes 26 A Message 26 Hospital .... Frank The Morale of a Base Major J. Sladen .... 27 Getting Acquainted Dr. Rupert Blue 30 They Couldn’t Down Him J. E. Harding 30 Field Meet of the Institute 31 News and Exchanges 32 DR. LIVINGSTON FARRAND, CHAIRMAN CENTRAL COMMITTEE, AMERICAN RED CROSS No. 10 CARRY ON 3 KEEPING BUSY HELPS CURE THE MENTAL CONDITION The, Wounded in Mind By Dr. Thomas W. Salmon Medical Director, National Committee for Mental Hygiene (Recently Colonel, M. C., U. S, A.) In the neuro-psychiatric ward of one of the If, however, inquiry is made into the history of large army general hospitals is a young soldier this patient it is discovered that he was cour- from overseas who wears no wound chevron ageously engaged in a charge against a on his right sleeve although the arm covered machine gun position when his hand was by it ends at the wrist. He is sad and rarely blown off by the bursting of a shell which speaks unless spoken to. If the medical visitor killed several of his comrades. The young asks how he came to lose his hand he moves his soldier suffers from a rather common and for- lips without answering. If the question is tunately extremely recoverable type of mental repeated he replies, with much difficulty in disease known technically as manic-depressive framing the words, that he would rather not psychosis because it has phases of excitement say. When pressed in a kindly manner he and depression that often alternate. The hesitatingly makes this statement, shame and sadness that constitutes the central symptom sorrow mingling in his face: “Well, sir, it was of the phase of the disease from which this this way. I was in the Argonne forest. I was soldier suffers is accompanied by thoughts and scared—and homesick—and I blew my hand delusions in harmony with his emotional mocd. off with a hand grenade.” Unless the visitor Soon, with proper treatment, a change will has special knowledge of mental diseases and come about and then if the patient’s surround- reads the lesson of the sad demeanor and ings are what they should be and his awaken- retarded speech he is apt to think that this is ing interests skillfully utilized, he will get well. only a glimpse of one of the darker sides of war. Then his wound will no longer serve only as a 4 CARRY ON Vol. I point about which to group delusions of un- the processes that it set up resulted in grave worthiness characteristic of his disease. changes'in the young soldier’s personality and In another hospital there is a lieutenant who thus he became a ‘mental case’. A bright and won the Distinguished Service Cross. It sunny nature changed to one in which sus- would be interesting to quote in full the picion and irritability predominated. Memory account of the deed for which this award was commenced to show slow impairment and as, made but, so strikingly did it stand out in the unfortunately, there are no surgical or other column of citations in which it appeared in the means of relief the outlook for this soldier is a newspapers, to do so would be more than slow darkening of the mind which in the end likely to disclose the patient’s Identity. This will cut him off from communication with this young offi- world and cer is suffer- those in it ing from the w h o m h e samemental loves. He disease as lost his mind the man to help us with the win thewar. amputated Throughout hand and his life the he is pre- minds of vented by others must his distress- do for him ingdelusions what his of unworth- own cannot. iness from The stories acce p t i n g AWAKENING INTEREST THROUGH GAMES of these the medal three sol- that he won on the fieldof battle. Fortunately diers are taken almost at random from those he too will recover and the award which now of 3,000 men with mental diseases (some re- only intensifies morbid feelings of self-depre- coverable and some not) who have been cation will become a source of pleasure and returned from the A. E. F. What are we pride. doing for men suffering from invisible wounds In another hospital is a soldier whose brain such as these? was pierced by a fragment of bursting shell. Thanks to the mental examination of re- Entering his skull, this tiny missile followed a cruits in the camps in the United States, the course determined by the innumerable chances rate for mental diseases in the A. E. E. was that govern the progress and arrest of an the lowest in the history of any expeditionary object in flight. Had it rested finally in a force. This means, for one thing, that the certain locality it could have been easily task of caring for the soldiers who came back extracted through one of the skillful proced- to us with mental diseases is not numerically ures of modern neurological surgery. Had it a formidable one. There are as many new lodged in another place or passed through cases of mental disease admitted every year different structures it would have given rise to to the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, where blindness, to local and unimportant paralysis, they receive skillful individualized treatment, to paralysis of the entire side of the body, or as have been returned from France. to alteration of one of the special senses. A .From the earliest period of preparation for combination of certain factors in physics, war the Surgeon General of the Army has ballistics, fate, and anatomy of the human stood strongly upon the principle that the central nervous system led to the lodgment of resources at his disposal were for the benefit this piece of enemy steel where its presence and of the mentally ill as well as those afflicted with No. 10 CARRY ON 5 other illnesses or the injured. The ignorant over entirely there is being developed under and cruel idea that if the brain happens to be the hands of some of the best trained men in the seat of disease or injury the patient is this branch of medicine a modern hospital for outside the fields of medicine and nursing the treatment of mental diseases, with all that found no place in the army’s conception of that implies. Patients arriving at Newport duty. When the base hospitals at canton- News are admitted within a few hours after ments were built neuro-psychiatric wards of their ship has dropped anchor, and those the most modern design were provided. arriving at the Port of New York reach Through these wards, staffed by specialists in Hampton within a day or two. this branch of medicine nurses and by and Careful examinations to determine not only enlisted men who had received training in the the type of disease but the precise situation care of mental and nervous cases, passed no that has brought it into existence, attention less than 30,000 soldiers with mental illness. to physical requirements, psycho-therapy, the In these cases the problem faced was a rela- use of occupation and diversion with special tively simple one for many of the patients had reference to the needs of individuals and out- had mental disease before their admission to lining future care including vocational educa- the army and it was desirable after a period tion all form part of the work of this institu- of emergency care to place them in the hands tion. More important than any of these, of their friends or in suitable hospitals in their except perhaps scientific diagnosis, is the own states. spirit of understanding, sympathy, and A different problem was presented by men- hopefulness which officers and men alike are tal cases among the soldiers returning from attempting to create in every- room and France. These, it must be borne in mind, ward of this great special hospital. Re- originated among a highly picked body of men straint, confinement in rooms, the employment and it is apparent not only from this fact but of bars, idleness, or any other factor which will to degrade from the symptoms that many of them present tend or humiliate patients whose that the disease is due or is aggravated by illness happens to be in a field little understood the conditions of active warfare.