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mutilations, impairments of vital functions, and diseases. Under this multiplicity of disabilities lies an equally diverse multiplicity of natural capacities, of occupational and professional experience, or interests, of material resources, and of social status.

Can any plan of restoration comprehend satisfactorily this diversity of disabilities, of experience and of outlook? Will it not be necessary rather to proceed without plans to do for each man what can be done for him, without any attempt at systematization or socialization of the work? In a sense the answer is "yes"; but in a much truer sense it is clearly "no." The unmistakable answer to any such query is to be found in the experience during the war of our allies and, it may be added, of our enemies as well. Rehabilitation as a social, organized, systematized enterprise has been and is being undertaken by every belligerent nation, and it has been wonderfully successful in salvaging the human wastage of the war.

The achievements of the belligerents are set forth in some detail in the chapters following, but some conclusions of this experience in the redemption of the disabled may be briefly summarized here.

At the outset it should be realized that the disabled man is not necessarily a cripple, a one-armed or onelegged, a blinded, or even a disfigured or mutilated man. He is much more commonly a man who has recovered more or less completely from some wound, infection or disease, so far as further active medical or surgical treatment is concerned. But he has emerged from this treatment with impaired physique -with, it may be, a weakened heart, an infected

lung, a disorganized nervous or mental system, a stiffened joint, or a weakened muscle.

For such a man the problem is not one of devising an artificial arm or leg which will do the work of a natural arm or leg. It is rather a matter of educating the man in an occupation in which his acquired weakness and susceptibilities to disease will not prove to be real handicaps. Of such occupations there is in most cases a wide range from which to choose, and training for one of these pursuits presents in the case of the disabled man no greater difficulties than are encountered in the vocational training of normal individuals. Cases of this sort constitute a very large proportion of our rehabilitation cases. Each man so disabled will be directed into and assisted to master that vocation which, in the opinion of the physician and the vocational expert, he is best capable of learning and practicing.

The gist of the matter is that disabilities, whether they be incurred in war or in industry, are not, except in comparatively few instances, absolute and total. In the great majority of cases they are rather special and relative to some given employment or group of employments.

The one-legged man, of course, is incapacitated for two-legged pursuits, but when one surveys the whole field of industrial occupations, one finds that the number of two-legged pursuits is surprisingly small. The chances are preponderant that the man who loses a leg in the war will be able to resume his former occupation on the basis of 100 per cent. efficiency. In the few instances in which he cannot do this, he

can be given a wide range of choice in electing for training a new occupation.

The man returning with a weakened heart obviously cannot resume an occupation that will subject him to violent physical strains, but a wide range of other occupations in which no dangerous physical exertion will be imposed are available for election and training. Innumerable open-air pursuits are available likewise for those whose disabilities indicate as dangerous close and continuous confinement in factory or workshop.

It is not intended to suggest that all cases of disability will present simple problems. The man who has lost a hand or arm, especially a right hand or arm, clearly presents a much more difficult problem. in restoration than many other types of disability. In some cases an artificial member can be provided which will largely overcome, in the given case, the man's special handicap in his former occupation, a work hand or arm to be worn in the shop or in the field. But in every such instance the problem of training and placement will still require most careful and persistent attention.

Fortunately, it is precisely the case of the man who has lost a hand or an arm or both hands or arms that has especially enlisted the interest of experts. In his behalf ingenious devices in the way of artificial members adapted to use in various occupations have been perfected, and to the solution of this most difficult problem in restoration countless experts are untiringly devoted. In the work of vocational rehabilitation for the armless and handless, the vocational expert can render service of inestimable value to the

man so disabled. In his case also, as in other cases, the disability is special, not total, and it can be mitigated by scientific treatment and expert service in training for work.

Total disability is the rarest accident in the war. The man who escapes death in the devastation of the trenches, in nearly every instance and however seriously disabled, will be a human being full of potential capacities for work. Certain pursuits, among which may or may not be numbered his former occupation, will be closed to him. His range of choice among pursuits may be wide or narrow, but in some employment, if it is chosen wisely and if he is trained intelligently, he can become 100 per cent. efficient. The obligation rests clearly upon society

to make him so.

Again, it has been amply demonstrated that the process of restoration, if it is to achieve the fullest measure of success, must be initiated early in the period of convalescence, and must be continuous and uninterrupted, sustaining the man with the inspiration of hope at every moment in his progress back from the front-line first-aid station, through the base and convalescent hospitals, on board the transport that brings him home overseas, and during hospital convalescence after his return, until his restoration, physical, functional and vocational, is completed and he is fully established in a suitable employment. Even then it will remain to insure his permanent. success in the occupation upon which he has entered, and to safeguard him from victimization in case he falls into the hands of unscrupulous employers or in

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FRENCH BRUSH MAKER, BLINDED AND WITH RIGHT ARM GONE, WHO PURSUES HIS TRADE WITH A MECHANICAL WORK ARM AND OTHER SPECIAL APPARATUS

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