The statistical tables of death in combat and death from war constitute a macabre reminder, somber quantitations of a legacy of tragedy and sorrow. The impact of such tallies diminishes as time advances, and after a generation the residue of ancient sorrow has been largely but not wholly diluted out. On the other hand, the crippled, those hideously disfigured by burns, amputations, and other wounds, the mained derelicts who survive, constitute a larger tragedy. The residual effect of forsaken hopes and ruined lives blights the individual but has done little to fix in the sometimes feeble memory of man the horrors of his organized misbehavior. In times past the effort at rehabilitation, though vigorous, was at best only partly successful and the peg-legged cripple, the war shocked and disfigured were accepted as part of the scenery of most communities.
The advancing mechanization and the increased tempo of warfare in World