Moslem Women Good Nurses.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 18, 1912:
Discard Veils to Succor the Inpouring Host of Wounded.
Special Correspondence The New York Times.
    CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 4.— I have just returned from a visit to the hospitals in Haidar Pasha and Scutari. Just beyond the long, low, yellow building in which Florence Nightingale won undying fame in the Crimean war rises the imposing building of the great Turkish Medical School. For several weeks courses have been suspended, and this immense building has been turned over to the Red Crescent Society. There are now in this building 650 beds, all of which are occupied. To-day they are putting down boards in the spacious corridors, upon which cotton mattresses are spread. They hope thus to make room for 300 more who have already been apportioned to this hospital.
    I went through the different wards, and can bear witness to the excellence of arrangements and the care bestowed upon the soldiers, most of whom are from the battle of Kirk-Kilisseh. Everything that science and modern methods can do for the wounded is being done there. The work is in charge of volunteer professors and students of the university. The X-ray is used continually, and plates are being preserved which will be of great value to the medical profession. The most remarkable thing is the fact that the nurses are mostly Moslem women in nurses' dress and cap, the veil being entirely discarded.
    I talked with some of the patients, and found that they were very happy over the treatment they were receiving. For three days after they were wounded they had nothing to eat, and were nearly starved when they reached the hospital. But the much-needed baths and clean clothes, comfortable beds, and, above all, a plenty of nourishing food, will make them reluctant to get well and be dismissed. Never before have they been as well off.
    The soldiers are unanimous in stating that they were exhausted from long marches and lack of food when they met the assault of the enemy at Kirk-Kilisseh, that they did not know how to use their rifles, and that the enemy's artillery fire was irresistible. They also complain bitterly of the lack of leadership, and the indiscriminate mixing of regulars and reservists without experience. The reservists invariably created the panics which were so disastrous.
    It is interesting to note that most of the wounded are disabled in the leg or arm. There are few seriously wounded, and almost all have been hit with shrapnel. Less than 10 per cent in the Scutari Hospital are suffering from bullet wounds. In view of the length of time between the battle and the arrival at the hospital, it is remarkable that there are few cases of gangrene.
    Every day the wounded are arriving at Constantinople by thousands, and it is not easy to estimate how many there are. It is believed that at least 20,000 have already arrived from the battlefields of Thrace. Of course, many are so slightly wounded that they have already been discharged and have returned to their regiments at the front.
    In spite of the size of Constantinople and the heroic work of the women of the various branches of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, the wounded are arriving faster than they can be attended to. An urgent appeal was made to-day to the citizens to receive wounded soldiers into their homes. The hospitals are all full, and also the schools and other Government buildings. No more beds are to be bought in the city. All reserve supplies have been used.
    Utmost care is taken in bringing in the wounded to conceal the number and to keep them from conversing with the common people. The transport from the railroad to the hospitals is carried on at night and with guards. Every cab that is left (and there are not many), every cart and every taxicab is requisitioned, and passersby are compelled to lend a hand to the stretchers
    As few of the seriously wounded have reached here, it is easy to realize how terrible must have been the fighting and how great the loss of life. Before Kirk-Killisseh, in the retreat to Eski-Baba, and in the battle of Lule-Burgas, one can readily believe that the Turks lost over 50,000 men.
    The Constantinople Chapter of the American Red Cross Society, working under the direction of Mrs. W. W. Rockhill, wife of the Ambassador, has furnished several hundred garments and beds, thousands of rolls of bandages and about $5,000 to assist the equipment of emergency hospitals. Mrs. Rockhill has invited the women of the colony to sew and roll bandages at the Embassy every afternoon.