OCR Text |
Show I J JJ IJH.MIIIIM H 1 i ,L0GS N WARTIME ' OF GREAT VALUE IN FINDINO THE WOUNDED. Frenchmen Urge Mlnliter of War to Have Animals Attached to Ambulance Am-bulance Corps Idea Is Not a New One. Slnco dogs havo proved to be such nblo assistants to the Paris police corps why shouldn't they be trained to reinforce the hospital ana ambulance Borvlco of the French army? Tho advantages ad-vantages of this Innovation have been nut forth at some longth by Dr. Blche-lonno Blche-lonno nnd Capt. Tolet In' a volume which has Just been published. It is entitled the "Cog as an Aid to the Sanitary Corps." That dogs should be taught to seek out the wounded on the battlefield la no now idea. Tho experiment was, tried with success at the time of the Doer war, and at tho battle of Cha-Ho Cha-Ho in the conflict in tho far east three dogs sent out by the Oorman Alliance discovered 23 soldiers who had been given up for lost In 1890, by order of the German war minister, two dogs, were added to tho sanitary corps of one of the crack regiments. Slnco then clubs for the training of dogs In war time havo "been formed In Dresden, Cologne Coburg, Alx-lachapello and Neuwled. Similar societies have been .organized In Holland, Hol-land, 8weden and Italy. In fact nil of tho European countries havo turned their attention to the subject at ono tlrao or other except Prance. Dr. Blchelonno and Capt. Tolet urgo tho military authorities to repair this omission. There are many good breeds of dogn tn Prance which would tako easily to tho military training. It Is an undisputed fact, theso au-thors au-thors say, that after an engagement thoro, nro many woundod and dying, who aro overlooked by tho nurses and litter carriers. A case In point Is quotod. At the battle of Itczonvllle-Gravolotto Itczonvllle-Gravolotto In 1870 two Injured soldiers lay for three days In a ravine. The ground had been gono over many times by tho ambulance service nnd yet they had not been found. In Instances In-stances like this the usefulness or dogs as scouts Is unquestioned. It Is a wonder that European armies have not awakened long before this last decade to tho Importanco of dogs as practical helpers In war time, the authors think. On tho battlefield the role of these canino assistants would bo verytuuch tho same as that of the St. Bernard dogs ad they havo been rescuing snowbound travelers for several sev-eral centuries. |