Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1916 — TRENCH WARFARE SHATTERS NERVES [ARTICLE]

TRENCH WARFARE SHATTERS NERVES

Horror of It All Has Lasting Effect on Victims of the Titanic Conflict. WEIRD SCENES ARE DESCRIBED Dr. E. Murray Auer of Philadelphia Saya “Trench Dreams" of the Wounded Bare Horrors of Modern Battles. Philadelphia.—That the horrors of trench warfare, with its sudden alarms at night, the bursting of shells and the burying of men by mine explosions, have a lasting effect on the men who undergo them is the conclusion reached by Dr. E. Murray Auer of Philadelphia, Pa., who for some time was attached to the Twenty-second General hospital of the British expeditionary force, "somewhere in France.” In a paper which was read recently before the Philadelphia Neurological society, and which appears in the current issue of the Medical Record, Doctor Auer gives the results of his observations. Tn practically all of the cases which were observed by Doctor Auer the soldiers received no appreciable physical injury, the effect being purely mental. One such Instance cited by the physician was found in a boy nineteen years old. This boy had been for three days under a sustained and heavy shell -fire.- -At the end of thattlme he was threatened by his sergeant with courtmartial .for sleeping while on sentry duty. This led to an examination and the sending of the boy to the hospital. He was in a stupor for ten days. The same was true of another soldier who had seen his chum blown to pieces. During the time of their coma, which in some cases lasted more than a week, the soldiers gave the impression that they again were living through the experiences which had caused the stupor to come on. This was evidenced by their terrifled expressions. They crouched, started and stared wildly when spoken to. One such man rose from his bed in the middle of the night and recited in a one-sided conversation his experience of a charge and burial by a mine explosion, and then relapsed into his stuporous state. Another result of shock, according to Doctor Auer’s observations, is a continued shaking of the entire body, accompanied by various pains and unusually severe headaches. In some cases this shaking has been observed to last several days, and even weeks, although in most instances its duration is a few hours. In one instance

this trembling came after a soldier had twice been buried in a mine explosion, had been through a charge and under heavy bombardment in a trench and finally was hit by a piece of rock, which, while not injuring him, knocked him down. In his case the tremor of the head was marked, and lasted for some time. Temporary loss of memory is a common thing with the men who have been through some extremely trying period or who have suffered a sudden shock. In such instances the recovery of memory is as sudden as its loss. One such soldier, after being near a shell which exploded, could remember nothing that happened to him until he came to himself, walking along a lane, some tiipe .later. Another man in the hospital thought himself back in the trenches and became violent, moving his. cupboard about as though it were a machine gun and pointing it at his enemies. When he suddenly returned to a normal state he could remember nothing of his experience. One of the most common, and at the same time most pitiful, of the many mental results of the struggle is the inability to sleep soundly and recurrence of so-called trench dreams. It is not uncommon, Doctor Auer says, to see soldiers start from their beds in the middle of the night, crying out and weeping, the bodies bathed in perspiration as they dream of being 'chased by Germans with bayonets, of being buried under debris following a mine explosion and of losing the trench in a fog and being unable to get back. The fear which is commonly found is not the kind which a layman would expect. The soldiers do not fear injury to themselves. They are rather afraid of doing something wrong, a fear of an emergency in which one