Library Collections: Document: Full Text


The Disabled Soldier

Creator: Douglas C. McMurtrie (author)
Date: 1919
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16  Figure 17  Figure 18  Figure 19  Figure 20  Figure 21  Figure 22  Figure 23  Figure 24  Figure 25  Figure 26

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483  

In France at the beginning of 1915, when it became clear that the number of blinded soldiers was going to be considerable, the Ministry of the Interior created a special institution for them in an old building in the Rue de Reuilly, Paris. All the war blind were to be sent there when their medical treatment was completed. Accommodations were provided for two hundred persons. The first group, admitted in March, 1915, consisted of forty men. But soon the home was filled to capacity, and seventeen branches have had since to be created: three in Paris, two in Lyons, and one in each of the following cities: Amiens, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Caen, Chartres, Dijon, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Saint-Brieuc, Tours, Toulouse.

484  

The institution is under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. Since its creation, however, it appeared to the director that, in addition, private initiative might be advantageously organized. He created the Society of Friends of Blinded Soldiers, formed of representatives of the Ministries of the Interior and of War, of Parliament, of the Quinze-Vingts hospital for blind, of the teaching profession, of commercial circles, and of the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish interests. It was through the efforts of this society that the different activities of the institution have developed.

485  

The Reuilly home was created as a "Convalescent Home for Blinded Soldiers," without any precise idea as to what it was to do for its inmates. It was but gradually and empirically that the re-education work has been built up. One month after the inauguration of the home, a very small shop for brush-making was opened. The experiment was successful, and the brush-making shop was soon overcrowded. It is still the most popular with the men. Since 1915, however, the re-education work has greatly expanded by the addition of new trades.

486  

At the present time, there are taught at Reuilly all the standard trades for the blind -- brush-making, basket-making, making and repairing of chairs, and so on. The course of massage, which has been a marked success, consists of two sections: massage proper and theoretical instruction in anatomy and physiology. The latter includes a complete course of lectures which it is necessary to write in Braille; ability to read by touch is prerequisite. At the end of the course, the students have to pass a very strict examination before a jury of physicians; they are never discharged before receiving their diploma. Since February, 1917, a group of graduates from Reuilly have been employed as masseurs in the military hospitals of Paris, and have given great satisfaction to the medical authorities. Others have found employment at the different resorts, at Monte Carlo, Vichy, Evian, Deauville.

487  

A shoe-repairing shop was established in February, 1916. The work was first confined to pegged shoes, but later an invention of one of the students made possible hand-sewn work also. Several men have graduated and found employment. The first pupil of the shoemaking school is now employed as an instructor in a workshop for blind civilians.

488  

A machine shop, under the direction of a blind instructor, has been in operation for two years. The first twelve pupils are now working in a special shop created for war blind. This shop is now filling orders for several of the largest automobile and machine plants.

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A course in piano tuning has been started on the initiative of a prominent piano manufacturer, himself blind. Other courses are in crystal grinding and telephone operating. Organ playing and singing are taught, not as independent vocations, but as possible supplementary occupations in rural localities. Macrame, raffia, and netting are not considered as real trades, but are taught to new arrivals for distraction and as a first preparatory exercise.

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As a general rule, all the men learn to read Braille. There has been established at the home a printing shop in which books in Braille are produced. To interest the men in reading, there is distributed every morning the official war bulletin printed in Braille. Still more effective in stimulating interest, has proved the publication of the "Reuilly-Midi," a small daily, which contains all the news of the institution.

491  

Many of the men learn typewriting, although it is not intended to train them for positions of typists. For the use of those who wish to correspond in ordinary handwriting, the administration of the home has devised a very simple "hand-guide," which permits the blind to write on equidistant straight lines.

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A very surprising experiment, which has given excellent results, is a course in fencing, directed by an expert teacher.

493  

In Germany, where a number of institutions for the training of blind had existed before the war, the general policy was that of creating in these institutions special sections for blinded soldiers. One of the most important institutions of this type is that at Breslau, which accommodates about fifty men. The men are transferred to the school after their medical treatment has been completed and stay there for about three months. They are kept under military discipline, and the training is compulsory. Many of the men remain in the institution voluntarily after being discharged from the army; in that case they contribute, out of their pension, for their maintenance one mark a day.

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