August 3, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
17 
A Palace of Hope for Broken Men 
By Mary Macleod Moore 
THE roar of guns, and the clash of arms ; men 
sending men to their deaths and dying themselves 
that others may live in safety. This is war. 
And so loud is the clamour that the work of 
healing mind and body, going on silently, is almost for- 
gotten. Yet this war is a triumph for the doctors and 
surgeons. Never was there a time when the relation of 
rnental and physical has been so recognised, so studied. 
There is an example of this in that Palace of Brave 
Endeavour, known as St. Dunstan's, for the blinded, but 
there is another instance. It is the wonderful Palace of 
Hope for the Broken Men, the Granville Canadian Special 
Hospital at Ramsgate, for the segregation and treatment 
of special cases. 
This hospital, with its anne.x, Chatham House, is 
unique. There is none exactly like it in England. A 
few months ago the Granville was only one of many big 
seaside hotels. Now, through the rooms where pre-war 
visitors danced and dressed and dined, there passes a 
stream of maimed, unnerved and crippled soldiers, who 
find there a treatment so successful that a large per- 
centage is cured and many fit for service. Men are 
brought to the Granville suffering from such diverse 
ills as shell shock, injuries and wounds which cause 
paralysis, joint affections and nerve injuries. Some have 
part of a foot or a hand blown away ; others break down 
hke hj'sterical women because their nerves are shattered. 
All are studied carefully by a Board of Consultants, 
c6nsisting of an eminent physician neurologist, an equally 
eminent orthopoedic surgeon, a skilled electro-therapist. 
Not alone for their ailments are they examined. The 
Board considers the special aptitudes of each man, and 
makes a \ery definite endeavour to put him at the 
earliest safe moment on to some productive work in 
which he is directly interested. This is the secret of the 
hospital. It allows no one to be bored. And those 
who have \isited hospitals and have seen the listless 
patients lealise what this secret means. There are 
hospitals where during convalescence the men have ' 
exercises, but after a few days these are about as lively 
and as inspiring as the treadmill. At the Granville they 
are given congenial occupations which not only keep 
them keen, but fit them for a return, early or late, to the 
industrial life they left at the call " Fall in ! " 
A Handicrafts Section 
It is inspiring to visit the Handicrafts Section and to 
see soldiers, lately weary and ill, working with keeness 
in the machine shop, for instance, where there are lathes, 
shapers, drills, etc. ; in the blacksmith's shop, in the 
harness and saddlery shop, where bronzed soldiers are 
skilfully making instruments and appliances for those 
whose legs and feet need special support. Enthusiasm 
grows apace as you watch the carpenters making hospital 
furniture, and look at the careful drawings and designs 
by men discovered to have an artistic bent. You can 
see fine carving and fretsaw work too, and in another 
department men are rolling cigarettes. Delicate tools, as 
well as splints and simpler things, are made by the 
patients. One of the toolmakers had been in private 
life a tatooist, and his surgeon argued, with sound logic, 
that an artist in that line must have had a light touch — 
the connection is clear. You are taken to see the grounds, 
where a tall soldier shows with pride his chicks, or his 
rabbits and guinea-pigs. There is even a Jersey cow that 
tries hard to be khaki, and is given credit for good inten- 
tions. Eighty patients work at kitchen-gardening and 
landscape-gardening with such success that the grounds 
of Chatham Annex, and the Townley Castle Annex, close 
by, are models of care and beauty. 
Behind the tools, the tables, the smooth lawns, and 
the chickens, the insight displayed is touching, inspiring. 
Here is a soldier brooding over his troubles, and the con- 
trast between this year and last. Gradually it is brought 
to him that he can be Iwsy and useful. If making splints 
is not his speciality he can recall his boyhood on a farm 
and mind chickens, or tend the garden. Depression dies 
before the joy of doing well work he understands, and 
competing with his fellows. Once more there is some- 
thing to think of through the long nights and the weary 
days besides pains and wounds. 
Men tajk " shop " of various kinds, in the hospital, and 
they are encouraged to think for themselves and to make 
suggestions. One patient may make a machine which 
exercises weak muscles. Someone else who was a skilled 
workman in the pre-war da^-s may add to the value of 
certain surgical appliances. 
Taught to Walk Again. 
The ""trained instructor, himself an ex-patient, helps 
men to exercise weak parts, and he excels in teaching 
his comrades to walk again. No mother with a 
toddling baby could be prouder than he when a man 
who has lost a leg walks alone with the aid of an 
artificial one. On an affair like a small steamer gangway 
they practise, holding cautiously to the sides. If the 
knee-joint be saved, they can even run and, according to 
the instructor, climb fences ! If the leg be amputated 
above the knee there are special exercises to prevent the 
man walking stiffly. 
Back to the Granville Hospital you go feeling some- 
thing like the Queen of Sheba, as you gaze in respectful 
ignorance at the various treatments which lead to 
wonderful results. There is electrical apparatus for 
nerve and muscle testing, a splendid electrical depart- 
ment, a wonderful X-ray apparatus, a multitude of 
baths — sau courante, vapour, radiant heat, arc light, 
electric water — and massage rooms, where cheerful boys 
whose badges speak of far-off prairie towns and Eastern 
cities, are having joints, muscles and stumps massaged. 
On the last stage of the journey towards complete fitness 
is the rifle range found, and for the men able for it, there 
is route marching. Nor is amusement forgotten, for 
there are fine recreation rooms with stage and cinema 
theatre, and the patients form concert parties and an 
orchestra and give entertainments. 
The Hospital is staffed, equipped and maintained by 
Canada, and there is nothing of which that country should 
be prouder. The staff, headed by Lt.-Col. Watt, O.C, 
includes a V.C, and there are others who have done 
distinguished service, whether publicly recognised or 
not. Stalwart keen men in khaki have performed opera- 
tions under fire by the light of candles flickering in the 
wind, they have broken records in passing the wounded 
through their hands while the guns thundered ; they 
have worked in great hospitals behind the lines. Many of 
them gave up splendid practices and high positions to do 
their bit for the Empire. The nurses, too, are a credit 
to Canada. Several of them, headed by the Matron, Miss 
Ridley, have won the Royal Red Cross, and have been 
decorated by the King. They ploughed through mud 
to their knees on Salisbury Plain with the First Canadian 
Contingent, and later they won their spurs in France 
before they were transferred to this Hospital. 
* * * * * 
The sun dances on the blue water with its line of craft 
in the distance. On the wide verandah lie men strapped 
to cots, but even they are hopeful, for they have seen 
wonders wrought, and the days of miracles are not over. 
Upstairs in a sunny room is the outward and visible sign 
of what has been accomplished. In one corner is a curi- 
ous pedestal. On it are hung crutches, splints, and other 
appliances which men who once looked Death in the face 
have laid aside as they walked away free. 
And the sunny room is called The Shrine. 
In Colonel Feyler's article on General von Bernhardi, it 
was stated last week that of Bernhardi's two principal works, 
Germany and the Next War had only been translated into 
English and French. As a matter of fact, both the works 
were published in English by Messrs. Hugh Rees, Bernhardi's 
Modern Warfare having been published in two volumes, the 
first in 1912 and the second in 1913, under the title of On 
War of To-day. It is still obtainable from the publishers, 
Messrs. Hugh Rees. "t, Regent Street, London. 
