The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-03-15
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Of the interior Of the car is painted white.
while the floor is covered with brown
InOleum and the sides of the ear are
painted brown to a height of ten inches,
in order to cover the steam pipes.
The transportation room is fitted with
an extra door a each side. through which
stretchers may be passed in and out.
There is room along the sides of the car
for ten cots which are designed 70 act
also as stretchers. The cots have folding
legs tipped with balls of rubber, 20 lessen
the jar when the car is in notion The
mattresses are wire netting, covered with
brown canvas, so arranged that the can
vas can be quickly removed II II be-
comes sOiled or stained. over the mat
tresses are spread several soft gray
blankets. and air pillows are provided in
profu~iOn.
Light bent wood chairs are in the car
for the use Of physicians and nurses. An
important feature Of the transportation
room are hammOcks arranged so that
they will swing across the car. These
have springs in the ropes 10 lessen the
motion. These mammocks are for persons
whose injuries are such that the least jar
might increase their pain OF danger.
Brown curtains shade each window IN
the transportation room.
The operating room is the especial pride
of DR.. Valentine and the envy of every
railroad surgeon who has seen it. Against
the partition that separates the two COM
partments is a closet arranged for sur
gical articles. The shelves are filled with
boxes Of bandages and absorbent cotton.
rubber articles used in operations. splints
for setting broken bones and prOfusiOn
of white enameled basins and pitchers.
Along the side of the car is a closet as
high as the window lodges. This closet
is in four compartments. In each of three
-r,. H. ooh vol
is fitted with a sliding tray. These trays
are higher at the back than at the front
and are filled with open spaces, in which
are set different sizes of bottles. Each
bottle is plainly labeled and each contains
drugs or other articles necessary in sur
gerry and for medicinal purposes.
The fourth compartment Of this closet
! contains a complete outfit of surgical in
struments. The outfit contains every in
strument necessary and enough to per
| form a dozen operations at once. One ar
ticle in particular attracts attention II
| is termed a floating label. Realizing
| that haste would mark the use of the car.
| Dr. Valentine gave considerable thought
| to so arranging everything that there
| would be little, if any. confusion in case
| of an accident on the road. 1t had been
his experience in hospitals that recepta-
1 cles holding different solutions would be-
| come mixed. and time would be lost in
| determining the contents of each. To
| prevent this in the car he designed and
had made the floating label"
| 1t is made of glass. il is one and half
| inches long and it has three sides. Inside
/ is a printed label which shows on each
| side of the glass. The ends of the glass
are sealed. and when solution is pre-
/ pared a label bearing its name is placed
/ in il. The label floats about and always
/ tells the name Of the contents of the basin
or jar.
/ In a corner of the operating room IS an
other invention of DR.. Valentine. 1t is
/ termed giant heater" and IL is operated
/ with kerosene oil The porter in charge
! of the car when he receives a call for it
must light this giant heater" and fill the
/ tank above il with distilled water. which
/ is always kept in the ear in sealed bottles
/ BY the time the car would reach almost
any point on the road the tank would be
filled with boiling hot water. an article
/ very necessary in a hospital
There is also a tank of cold water.
/ which would be the second one filled by
/ the porter in the event of a call. The car
/ carries a large quantity of distilled wa
I ter. Underneath the car is a big ice box.
/ which would be filed with ice upon a call
/ for the car.
! In the center of the operating room
stands a solid oak folding operating ia
J
! brass chandeliers that send Il flood of
/ light into every corner.
/ In the event of fleet of foreign war
ships attacking a northern seacOast city
/ the HOSPITAL car could be placed in ser
vice. After the battle the American war
{ ships could send their wounded ashore In
/ steam launches. They could then be
{ placed i'm tire hospital car and taken 10
/ hospitals. The railroad company. 1t is I'M
/ derstoOd. would place the hospital car
/ and train of other cars at the service of
the Government. The extra cars could be
! fitted with beds and the hospital car used
! for operations and the dressing of
wounds.
Dr. Valentine has in contemplation an
/ arrangement for swinging the cots or
/ stretchers clear of the floor. The idea
came to him while visiting a friend who
is surgeon of a man-of-war. DIR. Valen-
tine was shown the sick bay" on the
ship He had had to descend a spiral
stairway and afterward remarked that
1t would be difficult to get a badly wound
ed man down into the place. He suggest
ed n swinging arrangement TO be used in
lowering injured men in a hammock or
.stretcher. and now contempiates putting
the idea into service on the hospital car.