St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-11-09

plan makes it appear to have a
great deal more yard than really
exists. There are seven large brick,
granite trimmed buildings including
the Administrator building. There
are only four stories above the base
ments. All are connected by long
corridors which are over one-fourth
Of mile in length. The floor OF this
corridor is of mosaic. The wards
have hardwood floors and with the
exception of the out patients depart
.ments, which are most inadequate,
it is one OF the finest hospitals ever
saw. They have two operating
theatres which are perfectly equip
ped, the only criticism being that the
benches for students are OF wood,
whereas our best ones at home are
of marble or iron. Here is the larg-
est and best clinic in the city. All
classes of cases are to be found here,
except of course the contagious or
infectious cases. Every day one can
see from six to ten operations, and
the medical wards alone would keep
man busy every minute of his time.
The staff is composed OF Doctors
Payne, Sharkey, Acland and Haw-
kins are the physicians and Pitts,
Anderson, Clutton and Makins are
the surgeons. These men are kept
busy two days each per week and do
a vast amount OF work. OF these
four Mr.. Clutton is the most bril-
liant as an operator. Everything
moves when he is at work and
moves quickly. Pitts, Anderson
and Makins are slower but do excel
lent work. Mr.. Makins is the COOL
est man ever saw. No emergency
can surprise him, and under the most
trying conditions, his face always
wears the same expression. He has
the entire confidence OF his assistants
and consequently the unexpected
never "rattles" anyone in his clinic.
Possibly the fact that | have spent
more time at this hospital than at
any of the others, makes me regard
this staff as superior to that OF any
o,her institution. This hospital has
special department for gynacologi-
cal cases in charge Of Mr.. Culling-
worth and Mr.. TAFT. The eighty
beds in their wards are constantly
filled and their percentage of NOR
tally is very low indeed.
The National Hospital for epilep-
tics and paralyzed and the Chelsea
Hospital for women. are for those
patients which the names would
imply. At the first named, Horsely
and Balance are doing great work
in surgery Of the brain and spinal
cord. They are among the best
operators in London. Have wit
messed several operations here for
removal of tumors from the brain
and for paralysis caused by injury to
the spine or by disease Of the spinal
bones. Ofcourse the percentage oil
cures is small but without operation
there is miserable suffering exis.
tence until a lethal termination ends
it. These men have experimental
upon the brains of monkeys and
apes and thereby have gained vast
amount of practical knowledge upor
this subject. Let me hasten to ado
that all experiments are conducted
with the animal under an anasthe
tic, lest my anti-vivisection friend:
go into hysterical spasm.
Now as to comparisons. Our hos
pitfalls as a whole are better thar
those of Loudon. Our men diffe
greatly from the English medica
men as to opinions upon a grea
many subjects. But these subjects
are by no means settled as yet, ant
we may be wrong or they may. l
will take time to tell. Their work
consequently, in some lines is vastl,
different from ours. American opera
tive technique is, in my opinion, bet
ter than theirs, and so long as thei
results are as good as they now ar
they will not change it. The dealt
rate in abdominal surgery for in
stance is lower than ours, but Anne
: rican surgeons try and save the az
, parently more hopeless cases where
as the English surgeon let's them die
This makes our rate larger, but i
: all their operating they are yer
= thorough in trying to remove all d
: seased tissue. OF course they hav
to contend with the effects of alcohe
and specific disease, just as does til
surgeon in our large cities. To thes
| two causes are fairly attributabl
the larger death rate in any CITY 10