The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-04
THE MODERN WAR SURGEON
VIII Be Able to Do More Than Those Of
'6l-DesdIy Gaugreue May Now Be
e. Almost Certainly Averted.
From the Worcester Gazette.

With war between the United States
and Spain actually taking place many
men will fall under the terrible fire of
modern guns, and there will be many
wounded to be treated upon the field of
battle and in the hospital of the ship
OF war. But there Is comfort In the
fact that medical and surgical science
has progressed greatly since the war
OF the Rebellion. and wounded men will
have an enormous advantage over
those who then fell, both in their treat
rnent on the field and in the hospital.
Not that war will be robbed of its
horrors, for perhaps as many men will
die In proportion to those enga ged as
in the bloody battles of the Rebellion.
Perhaps the death rate. will be even
greater, for the combination of modern
armament and modern tactics is yet to
be tested under the conditions which
are pretty sure to exist if the country
goes to war with Spain. But after a
man Is wounded he will have much
better chance of living than in the old
days, as a usual thing.
TEACHINGS OF EXPERIENCE.
DR.. j. Marcus Rice. of Worcester, was
surgeon in the army all through the
war and had much experience on the
field of battle. He was the surgeon of
the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts regi-
ment, which suffered more than almost
any other regiment in all the northern
army. At Cold Harbor the Twenty-fifth
lost more men than any other regiment
in single battle. DR.. Rice is conse-
quently well qualified to talk of the
treatment of the wounded in the Rebel
lion, and to draw comparisons with
what the treatment will be in more
modern warfare.
In the first place. said DR.. Rice, the
wounded will have the advantage of
antiseptics. One of the horrors of the
Civil war was gangrene. Many men
who would have otherwise recovered
lost their lives from the entrance of
this terrible poison into their wounds.
1t could not be helped. Operating had
to be done in a hurry because of the
great number of men to be treated.
Cftentimes there was an insufficient
supply of water; that used in the
washing of wounds of one man had to
be used on those of the next. Sponges
were employed, in themselves sufficient
to convey the contagion even when
there was enough of water. And the
exposure to the hot sun was so general
that wounds became impregnated with
gangrene even before the victims ar
rived at the field hospital
SELECTING A HOSPITAL SITE.
1t was the duty of the surgeons to
select a site for field hospital before
the impending action, when there was
warning of a fight, and to make every
a ~ no
ment of the wounded and the COM
| fort before and after being placed
| upon the operating table. In the field
! such arrangements must of necessity
be more or less primitive. No great
| bulk could be carried; only what was
absolutely imperative was at hand for
the use of the surgeons. For an op-
| Grating table a door or few boards,
| covered with a piece of carpetng, or
mating. or whatever could be OBJ
tanned for the purpose, were sup
| ported upon crotched sticks. Boughs
answered for a resting place for the
wounded, and boughs alone protected
them from the heat of. the sun, but
| did not protect them from the rain if
the weather was wet. The men took
! their turn, the more severely wounded
| uISl, lHe OlnerS dIlerWdrQ.
When there were houses in the vi
cinity one or more were seized for hos
| pital purposes, but as a rule the op-
Grating was done in the open air and
the men were taken care Of out of
doors in preference to crowding them
into building for fear of the dreaded
| crowd poisoning" which resulted
from too close quarters of the wound
ed. This latter danger would not be
so serious today. because of the anti
septics, but otherwise the field hos
pitals would not be so very different
when the column was away from its
base.
HORROR OF GANGRENE.
DR.. Rice told of several instances &c
illustrate the horror of gangrene. AT
Cold Harbor a chaplain of a Vermont
regiment was brought to him for
treatment, wounded in the fleshy part
of the calf of one leg. The doctor con.
! graduated him upon his injury, and
when the clergyman looked up in sur
prise he explained that he would now
have to go home, as his days of use
fulness in the army were ended and
he would be hereafter free from the
| dangers of battle and would be as wei
as ever but for triflng limp. But
the war would probably be ended be.
fore he was able to resume an active
life again. The chaplain was sent e
the base hospital at Fortress Monroe
and a little later DR.. Rice was shocked
to hear that he had died of the wound
gangrene having set in.
Another instance was still more terri.
| b1p II WaS N this same antion The
doctor had noticed a man lying on tn,
ground near his table and supposed
him to be one of the less seriously
| wounded who were about the place
| waiting for the serious cases to be dis
posed of before being treated them.
selves. Finally there was a letting ur
in the rush of the work, and the doctor
| walked over to the recumbent man and
asked him where he was wounded The
man showed a wound, in the thigh; il
was already attacked with gangrene
and there was nothing in the world
to do for him but to make him more
comfortable and to let him die. ght
heat had caused the poison to appear
with incredible quickness.
USE OF ANTIsEPTICs.
The use of antiseptics will do much
TO prevent fatal results from many
l wounds which would cause death under
the same conditions as those which ex,
listed in the Rebellion. When tn,
wounded are first picked up on the fell
antiseptics will be applied with the
temporary bandages. And when the
wounded man is placed upon the oper,
ating table he may be sure that all pos