Figure. When I was a medical student in the 1970s I found this photograph among a collection of photos in the possession of my grandmother. It shows an operating room of the Russian army during World War I. My grandfather, Heinrich Adrian, is at the head of the operating table, giving anesthetic. The identities of the other people are unknown. My grandfather was not a trained physician. He was one of the Prussian Mennonites whose ancestors had been invited by Catherine the Great to settle in what had become southern Russia. Because the Mennonites were pacifists, one of the conditions of their immigration was exemption from military service; they were allowed alternatives to being combatants in war, one of which was to serve in the Sanitätsdienst, or health service. My grandfather served in this capacity. Apparently, one of his tasks was to bury amputated limbs at the end of the day. He came to Canada in 1924, settling in southern Manitoba, and spent the rest of his working life farming and trading in farm goods. — Arthur Wiebe, Family physician, Kincardine, Ont.