On the incapacitated German soldier every possible care is bestowed. His every need is foreseen and when possible provided for with an eye to thoroughness and economy. Waste and niggardliness are sedulously eschewed. Every man is provided with a square of canvas with eyelets, which serves as a carpet on which he lies at night, as a stretcher on which, when wounded, he is carried to the place where he can have his injuries attended to, and which, when he is killed, is used as a winding-sheet. The medical organization of the army is as thorough as the military. And the results attained justify the solicitude displayed. From month to month the percentage of wounded who are able to return to the front has been augmenting steadily, and the death-rate has decreased correspondingly. During the first month of the war, out of every hundred wounded there were 84.8 capable of further service, 3.0 dead, and 12.2 incapacitated or sent home. In September of the same year the number of those able to return to the front rose to 88.1, or about 4 per cent. more. And at the same time the death-rate sank from 3 to 2.7 per cent. In the third month the proportion of soldiers able to resume their places in the ranks of fighters was 88.9, while the deaths had been reduced to 2.4. During the period beginning with November and ending in March the number of the wounded who went back to the front oscillated between 87.3 and 88.9. In November the percentage of deaths was only 2.1 per cent., and in December only 1.7 per cent. January 1916 showed a further improvement, the death-rate having fallen to 1.4 and in February 1.3 per cent. During the two following months the percentage rose again to 1.4, but declined slowly until in June and July it had descended to 1.2 per cent. The number of wounded men who were sent back to their places at the front had meanwhile increased by April to 91.2, and by June 1915 to 91.7, and in May and July to 91.8. Seven per cent. were wholly incapacitated or dismissed to their homes. Among the latter a considerable percentage returned subsequently to the ranks. Altogether, then, about 91.8 per cent. of the wounded German soldiers who fall in battle are so well taken care of that they are able to fight again, and no more than 1.2 per cent. of the total number succumb to their wounds.[143] [143] _Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift._