The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-21

provement that we call antiseptic sur
gerry.
What is the greatest Improvement YOU
nave made in recent years, doctor?" l
asked.
I'm very recent years. think our
method OF treating compound fractures"
he replied. Suppose that a man is run
over by truck, and one leg completely
mashed with bits of bone protruding
through the SKIN. Formerly amputation
OF the leg was the only relief for such
an injury. Now we are able to save the
leg. We etherize the patient, open the
wound and wash il out thoroughly with
soap and water. There is nearly always
dirt in wound after a street accident
Then every bit of bone is put in place
the whole is sewn up and well bandaged
and with antiseptc treatment, the leg
becomes sound again."
IF an injured patient is dirty, we wash,
him. If he is badly run down, weak per-
haps poorly nourished, we build him up
with proper food. stimulants and tonlcs.''
What does this treatment cost?" l
asked
Nothing" he replied "rhat is the
patient who can pay nothing receives ex-
actly the same treatment as the man VINO
can pay $50 week. We like to make
some little charge when it can be done, 80
that the patient will not feel like a pau
per. If he is able. he can pay 50 a week.
If he is richer, he can pay more There
are certain afternoons, when his friends
can visit him, for, of course, we cannot
have the wards always full of visitors.
But in case his life is in immediate dan
ger, we always send for his friends, and
they can remain constantly with him."
This refers to the patients who go into
the wards; but there are such things as
private rooms in st. Lukes and in most
of the hospitals. There have always been
private rooms. of course, but the modern
management of them is new to me; i'm,
agine that it is not understood to most
people.
4 or instance: 1 can go to ST. Luke's.
and for $21 a week l can have private
room, with board, medicines, medical and
surgical attendance. and a trained nurse
constantly with me. There l am In a ho-
tel, and can have anything l want. Not
only can my friends visit me at any hour
of the day or night, but they can be con-
stantly with me- Indeed, they can rent
the next room and live with me- as they
could in any other hotel outside the
hospital the nurse alone would cost me
$25 a week. Inside, / can pay more, If
desire a better room.
The impression left after making this
investigation is that the person who is
injured in the street falls into good hands,
and receives at least as good care as he
Many of these appliances We're not posi-
BILE half generation ago, when there were
no telephones, no pneumatic tires. no ster-
ilzing boilers. That the ambulance sur
geons, house surgeons and the rest are all
young men Is still true; and physicians
say that these young men are better for
that work than older ones. But the young
men do not do the important work The
staff of every big hospital includes sur
geons and physicians eminent in every de-
partment who cannot live in the build
ings; and for the important cases one of
these men is instantly summoned by tele-
phone
The old-fashioned dread of a hosptl Al
still fingers in some good old-fashione1
minds; but those minds may rest easy in
New York. for here no man can be taken
to a hospital against his WILL except in
cases of contagious disease. In your hotel
in your lodging house, you may be too i'll
to move, to poor to pay. you must go
to the hospital" your landlord may say;
and then you can laugh al him, if you
feel like laughing. The policeman he
sends fop will tell him that he cannon
touch you. The ambulance surgeon will
tell him the same thing. The whole po-
lice department, assisted by the entire am
buance corps, cannot take one poor, old
sick man out of his unpaid-for room in
this city unless he is willing to go.