462 Editoriais [June-September 



as is well known, skilled assistance of every kind is rated at a higher 

 figure than prevails with us in this country. We are certain that the 

 American nurses did not need money as an incentive, but it is equally 

 certain that some of the most experienced of them could not have 

 undertaken to volunteer unless the pecuniary footing of their em- 

 ployment had been made sure. 



Mediane is here proving itself a real link between nations. 

 When we get down to the simple fact of a man in pain, in sickness, 

 and perchance in peril of his life, the differences that exist between 

 one country or State and another, arising out of political Conventions, 

 trading regulations, unhealed quarreis or injudicious speeches, may, 

 we see, disappear altogether, and the action of the United States 

 displays this medical spirit splendidly. We must not forget that the 

 war is practically a world war, and that its results now give rise 

 to very serious mental and material trouble to the United States, 

 the only first-class power still remaining neutral. While the greater 

 part of the inhabitants of the United States, though maintaining 

 political neutrality, are known to see eye to eye with the Allies in the 

 rights of the quarrel, there is still a section among them who hold a 

 dififerent view, and who make the satisfaction that comes from com- 

 plete unanimity very hard to obtain. Again, the trade of America 

 is embarrassed and her financial position is complicated in many 

 directions by a struggle in whose origin she at any rate had no part. 

 Because of all this the European war is a subject of painful anxiety 

 on the part of the inhabitants of the United States, and their action 

 in helping our armies in the field by providing hospitals in accord- 

 ance with the recognized military pattern, to be placed under the 

 control of the War Office, is one for which we must be very grateful. 

 Nor must we forget to express appreciation of the fact that among 

 American surgeons and physicians who have come to the help of our 

 sick and wounded are some who have left lucrative practices and 

 important positions on hospital stafTs, or in connection with universi- 

 ties, in order to lend their aid in the hour of need. This alone would 

 show that the medical inipulse is at the bottom of their action; the 

 Citizens of the United States are not taking sides so much with the 

 Allies against the German as with the sufferers against the triple 

 alliance of disease, privation and injury. Lancet, London, July 3, 



1915- 



