Françaises had raised the number of its hospitals from 100 to 350, and
from 5,000 to 18,000 the number of its beds; the number of its
graduate nurses from 5,000 to 7,000.

On the thirty-first of December, 1916, the three societies counted
about 42,000,000 days of hospital work, 25,000,000 for the Société de
Secours aux Blessés alone. From the beginning of the war, this society
has expended for equipment the sum of 38,700,000 francs.

Aside from these there are other figures which show the material
effort of the Frenchwomen which I can not pass over in silence. They
show the civic devotion of which they are capable. The Société de
Secours aux Blessés has been granted one cross of the Legion of Honor,
94 Croix de Guerre, 119 Medailles d'Honneur des épidémies. The
Association des Dames Françaises has won 17 Croix de Guerre and 80
Medailles des épidémies. The Union des Femmes de France has won 39
Croix de Guerre. And last comes the glorious list of martyrs of the
societies: 110 nurses have died in the devoted performance of their
duties.

The heroism of these valiant women, many of whom remained in the
occupied territories, will be the eternal pride of France. Madame
Perouse, President of the Union des Femmes de France wrote to M. Louis
Barthou telling him the number of women who had risked their liberty,
their life, their honor even, to protect in the face of the ferocious
enemy the sacred rights of the French wounded. It is fitting to add
that, if they have taken care of the German wounded as well as the
French wounded, they can always recall the reply of a devoted teacher
of the Marne district, Mlle. Fouriaux, to a German major: