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MORE DAYS IN ANTWERP 241
trees of parks and alleys. We arrived just in time to witness
the burial of a marine who had fallen at his post. The body
of the dead man was carried to the grave on a Belgian hearse
with a silver cross on the roof and drawn by one horse. Behind
the hearse followed some hundred soldiers from the army and
navy. After the funeral three rilie volleys were fired over the
grave, which was then filled in. There were several German
graves in the little churchyard, decorated with wreaths and
helmets, and also two common graves containing the men who
had fallen in some light.
On a country road near by a battery of Austrian 30.5-cm.
mortars stood posted. A single one of these batteries of two
guns requires a train of forty-two vehicles. The barrel re-
quires a lorry to itself, likewise the gun carriage. Then there
are wagons for the men, the ammunition, accessories, tools,
provisions, kitchen gear, etc.
In conclusion, we paid a visit to the great military hospital
at Malines, where the surgeon-in-chief and another staff-
surgeon showed us round everywhere. The operating theatres
more especially of this Belgian hospital seemed to meet all
aseptic requirements. At the present moment there were
only 140 wounded on the premises. Over every bed hung a
metal frame to which an arm could be bandaged when it
needed stretching, and other contrivances with weights and
pulleys had been installed for stretching injured legs. Several
interesting cases were explained to us. A soldier had re-
ceived a bullet through the back of the neck, but the spinal
medulla was uninjured and the patient could walk about
although it was only six days since he was wounded. Another
had been struck on the left side of the lower jaw, which had
been crushed, the bullet having found its way out on the right
side. By an ingenious arrangement of gilt brass wire fastened
to the teeth, the doctors had succeeded in giving the necessary
support to the lacerated jawbone. The patient could even
move his lower jaw and speak. A third man had been struck
by a bullet in the head and had lost the power of speech, but
understood what was said to him and nodded yes and no. A
Belgian soldier had received a nasty wound in the head. He
seemed unbalanced, was delirious and spoke of his wife and
children. If anyone asked whether he had heard from them
or knew where they were, he merely answered :
" Look there
on the right," and turned his head in that direction. In his
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