Sudden Deaths on Active Service

SUDDEN death in one sense is, of course, one of the necessary accompaniments of war. I do not, however, propose to speak of the military side of the subject, though many of the cases of wounds, asphyxiation from gas, and death apparently from shock only, which it became my business to investigate, were of great interest arid not a little importance. I intend rather to discuss some of the cases on which I made post-mortem examinations which come within the sphere of civil practice, and I have seleeted those cases in which in England an inquiry by a coroner would have been considered necessary, In many cases a "court of inquiry" was held, though I was by no means always summoned to attend, and in others no such inquiry was deemed necessary. Nor, again, do I propose to include a number of accidents, some of which were incidental to the war, but most of which were caused by the usual sort of carelessness which causes so many of the accidents of civil practice. In any campaign of large dimensions it would be strange if no cases of death occurred from other causes than wounds and sickness. The number of troops engaged on the front in France formed a considerable population, and a very mixed one. The circumstances were in m~ny places such as to cause hardships, heavy strain, at times privation, and almost always a greater or less degree of excitement and anxiety. Even though the men had passed a medical examination OIl enlistment, many escaped rejection who certainly were not fit to meet these conditions, and some whom any