the effect of heavy colds; or rheumatism, debilitating sore
throat, or furiously aching teeth; or they may be suffering too
severely from shock to be of any use in the trenches.

There are between six and seven thousand hospitals in France to-day
(possibly more: the French never will give you any exact military
figures; but certainly not less); but their beds are for the severely
wounded or for those suffering from dysentery, fevers, pneumonia,
bronchitis, tuberculosis. In those first days of war before France,
caught unprepared in so many ways, had found herself and settled down
to the business of war; in that trying interval while she was ill
equipped to care for men brought in hourly to the base hospitals,
shattered by new and hideous wounds; there was no place for the merely
ailing. Men with organic affections, suddenly developed under the
terrific strain, were dismissed as Reformes Numero II--unmutilated in
the service of their country; in other words, dismissed from the army
and, for nearly two years, without pension. But the large number of
those temporarily out of condition were sent back of the lines, or to
a sort of camp outside of Paris, to rest until they were in a
condition to fight again.

If it had not been for Mlle. Javal it is possible that more men than
one cares to estimate would never have fought again. The eclopes at
that time were the most abject victims of the war. They remained
together under military discipline, either behind the lines or on the
outskirts of Paris, herded in barns, empty factories, thousands
sleeping without shelter of any sort. Straw for the most part composed
their beds, food was coarse and scanty; they were so wretched and
uncomfortable, so exposed to the elements, and without care of any
sort, that their slight ailments developed not infrequently into
serious and sometimes fatal cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, and even
tuberculosis.

This was a state of affairs well known to General Joffre and none
caused him more distress and anxiety. But--this was between August and
November, 1914, it must be remembered, when France was anything but
the magnificent machine she is to-day--it was quite impossible for the
authorities to devote a cell of their harassed brains to the
temporarily inept. Every executive mind in power was absorbed in
pinning the enemy down, since he could not be driven out, feeding the
vast numbers of men at the Front, reorganizing the munition
factories, pla