Doctors Locate Bullet By Phone

1915

London Surgeons Have New Method of Discovering Presence of Foreign Body

London. — One of the romantic touches in modern surgery which the exigencies of the present war have introduced is a method of detecting bullets and fragments of shell in the human body by means of a telephone. This method is employed in special cases in one of the large London hospitals.

To a telephone receiver two short lengths of wire are attached. One of these ends in a small piece of platinum; this is placed upon any part of the patient's skin which has been moistened with salt water. The other end of the wire terminates in a thread of antiseptic silver, and this is bound around the surgeon's probe or lancet or other instrument. The surgeon then places the receiver to his ear and makes the incision.

The instant the instrument touches the bullet a very distinct rattle is heard, quite different from the faint murmur audible as the instrument merely cuts through the flesh, and in this way when X-rays fail, as they sometimes do, the foreign substance is located.


He Is a War Hero At 13

Youngest Noncommissioned Officer in the French Army

Paris. — The youngest noncommissioned officer in the French army is Marcel Vernier, who is thirteen years and seven mouths old. He followed the artillery as a kitchen helper at the opening of the war and learned to ride a horse and was quickly promoted to be a corporal. He has been named adjutant sergeant major and his name has been proposed for the military medal for valor in action. He was recently wounded and was brought to a Paris hospital.

Vernier is an orphan and is one of a large family of young brothers and sisters.