The herald., 1898-04-24
AssY,~. smr

or less profound constitutional shock which
is usually present. AS the patients are
dressed they are placed in the ambulance
wagons which, as they are filled. are dis
patched to the field hospitals in charge
of a corporal and a wagon orderly.
The second line of assistance is composed
of the field hospitals and stationary hos
pitfalls on the lines of communication with
the base of operations
The field hospitals are lightly equipped,
movable hospitals, capable of being easily
and rapidly opened out and packed up.
They are intended only for the temporary
treatment of one hundred patients EACH
and are supplied with wheel or pack trans
port, as the nature of the country may rem
der advisable They are divisible into half
HOSPITALS. each for fifty men, when this
may be required. No special hospital diets
are supplied to them, the field rations,
cooked as the medical officers may direct
and supplemented by such "extras" and
medical comforts" as they may order, be-
ing used for them; they are termed mon
dieted hospitals" The bedding consists of
a blanket and waterproof sheet for each
patient no bedsteads being supplied. When
suitable buildings are available, these hos
DitalS may De eSldDllSlleu III tHtil, OtHel-
wise the tents are pitched and they should
always be placed as near to the dressing
station as possible. so as to shorten the
Journeys of the ambulances. There must
be an ample water supply.
Field hospitals, it must always be re-
membered, must advance with the divisions
to which they are attached; during active
| operations of the troops they are intended
merely for the temporary accommodation
| of the wounded Immediately after battle.
| A constant stream of conveys of sick and
wounded must, therefore, be kept from
| them towards the stationary hospitals on
| the lines of communication and base. When
| an engagement is imminent the field hos
| pitfalls must be emptied, so as to be ready
| to move forward and receive the wounded
| from the battlefield; and when this is i'm
possible in the case of any particular hos
pital in consequence of the serious nature
of the cases occupying it, ii must be left
behind to become itself a hospital on the
line of communication, and an empty hos
pital sent forward to take it's place.
During and Immediately after a great
battle the press of work in field hospital
is usually very great. Large numbers of
wounded men requiring Immediate attention
arrive almost simultaneously. Food must
be given to them; many primary opera
| tions must be performed fractures must
| be got into position and rendered immova-
BILE; wounds must be rendered antiseptic
and dressed-in a word, all the surgical ne
cessities of perhaps a hundred men, some
of them slightly and some of them terribly
| injured will require instant consideration
| and treatment. These are not, in modern
times, procedures which can be hurredly
performed, nor in a perfunctory manner.
On the contrary, they require, to achieve
the successful results obtained by scientific
surgery, almost the same nicely of manipu-
lation and care in detail which the bacte-
riologist expends on his experiments in the
laboratory. Failure in the laboratory
means only the waste of All experiment
but failure to keep infection from a wound
or to render it harmless if it be preent
means pain and suffering from surgical in
fective disease, loss of limbs, and, in many
cases, of life itself.
The stationary hospitals on the lines OF
communication are more permanet and
better equipped establishments than those
Just described. They are "dieted hos.
pitals," that is, the patients in them arc
fed as closely as may be, according to the
usual hospital diet-scale. They are in.
tended for the reception of two hundred
men, and stretchers, to be used as bed
steads, are supplied for this number. Pa
tients can be treated in them until sucl