The work and experience with the Russian wounded have given this American doctor a remarkable insight into the character of the peasant soldier. “These moujik chaps,” he assured me, “never make a complaint. I never saw anything like it. Sometimes they groan a little when you’re digging for a bullet, but once off the table and in the straw (we are without beds as we move too fast for that) a whole barnful will be as quiet as though the place was empty; one German, on the other hand, will holler his head off and keep the whole place awake. The Russians never complain, and everything you do for them they appreciate remarkably. I do a lot of doctoring for the villagers, and every day there’s a line a block long waiting to get some ‘American’ dope, and they’re so grateful it makes you feel ashamed. Everybody wants to kiss your hands. I tried putting my hands behind me, but those that were behind were just as bad as those in front. Now I’ve given up and just let them kiss.” The vitality of the Russian soldier is amazing according to the evidence of this observer. With the exception of wounds in the heart, spine or big arteries there is nothing that must certainly prove fatal. Many head wounds that seem incredibly dangerous recover. “I had one case,” he told me, “which I never would have believed. The soldier walked into my hospital with a bullet through his head. It had come out just above his left ear and I had to dissect away part of the brain that was lying on the ear, Well, that fellow talked all through the dressing and walked out of the hospital. I sent him to the rear and I have no doubt that he recovered absolutely.” In the hundreds of cases operated on not a single death occurred on the operating table and not one lung wound proved fatal. Many of the abdominal wounds of the worst type make ultimate recoveries, and it was the opinion of the surgeon that not above five to ten per cent. of the patients who reached the first dressing stations died later from the effects of their wounds. That the war was very popular among the common soldiers was the conclusion that my friend had reached. “The old men with families don’t care much for it,” he added, “but that is because they are always worrying about their families at home, but the young fellows are keen for it, anxious to get to the ‘Front’ when they first come out, and eager to get back to it even after they have been wounded. Some of them as a matter of fact go back several times after being in the hospital.”