The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-29
FATALITY or BATTLE WOUNDS.
Advance of Surgical skill in Gem
GRAFTON Reduces 1t by Half.

Advance of Surgical Skill in n Cen
GRAFTON Reduces 1t by Half.
John Gilmer Speed, in the New York Her
aid.
In the civil war the proportion Of Union
soldiers who died of wounds to those VINO
were killed outright in battle was 43 to 81,
or not far from seven to eleven. These
figures are taken from the report of the
adjutant generals office The statistics
on the Confederate side are less exact, but
it may be assumed that the proportion
there was about the same. AS there would
be little chance of finding out whether
man found dead on the field before medi-
cal assistance had reached him had or
had not been killed instanteously, it may
be also assumed that died of wounds"
means died in hospital'-the inference
on the part Of the surgeons of those days
being that death was the necessary result
of the wounds
II Is some comfort to know, now that
the United States Is entering upon another
armed struggle, that the number of deaths
from wounds is not likely to be as much as
so per cent. as large, in proportion TO the
number of wounds received, as il was
either in the civil war or in any other
prior to the present generation. And this
in spite of the more than tenfold increased
destructiveness of the latter day weapons.
The reason and ground of this hope are
not in the nature of the Krag- Jorgensen
and Mauser rifles, used respectively by
our own and the Spanish armies but in
the astounding progress of the last twenty
years in the art of surgery. 1t is not be-
cause man is hit by an up-to-date rife
bullet more often dies on the spot for that
this is the case is very far from certain.
During the first third and fourth quar-
ters of modern nickel coated smgs flight
its rending effect is terribly fatal it is
true, but in the second quarter, or "hu-
name area" of its range it has a tendency
10 cut clean hole But all experiences
of recent years indicates that where nine
wounded men out of ten would have been
buried from a field hospital in the wears
between 1851 and 1865. only four would die
in the year 1898. the other six being event.
uaily discharged safe, whole and. prob
ably, in better health than they enjoyed
before they were wounded
In fact, died of wounds so far as II
applies to the wars of past generations.
including our own civil war. really means
In most cases that death resulted from
hospital sangrene' hospital fever of
erysipelas. The surgeons of those dave
We're quite aware OF these symptoms, but
their causes had not yet been discovered
1t was supposed that the atmosphere of A
hospital was impregnated with a subtle
impalpable infection which could only he
combated after 1t had begun to show Its
effect In suppuration One fluid result Of
this infection was even called ouaintIv
enough, "laudabe pus," because. on the
theory that a certain degree of suppura
ton was unavoidable, it was regarded DC
hopeful sign when the wound threw off
the troublesome humor which if kent In
would produce fever. It was not tben
known, perhaps hardly even suspected
that the surgeon himself was ACTUALLY in,
nal of
ribe specific disease.
The surgeons of the civil war would
doubtless, have been very much surnris
ed to hear that their hands. hastily rinsa,7
in cold hydrant or spring water were
busy carrying from wound to wound HIM
dreds or organisms, the proper name of
which was, or was to be, "StreDtococcne
Pyogenes." Two medical discoveries one
In the honest sense of the word ennIri-
cal the other resulting from purely scio,,
tlfic investigation, led to the detection ana
apprehension of this wholesale assasein
Many a surgeon before the year 1s7e
would have been glad TO know how #
might be possible to amputate legs snd
arms without suppuration Manv triad
for solution of the problem, aithough
most were, no doubt content to 80,
things as they found them welcome H.
appearance of their "laudable nus ga
fight the, to them, inevitable "hosnitai
fever IL was Joseph Lister, whose name
Is now known an every surgical ward in
the world, who first, as a veteran surgeon
lately expressed 1t, Started the bo1nds
on the right scent, when they were ali -
fault" This shrewd Scotch sur@aon
coming from Edinburgh to Kings ColIose
Hospital, London. about twenty veers
ago, introduced there what has been calIed
the 'aseptic' method Of surgical trest-
ment In this method the whole vicinItyy
OF the part to be operated on called in
the language OF the clinic, "the surgical
field" is impregnated with a spray Of rsrl
bolic acid by means of an atomizer. Az
soon as the operation is finished. not oni,,
As the cir excluded from the wound by