The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-16

the United States soldier in battling
with the Spaniard greater, so far as es-
Gaping with his life is concerned, than
was the case with the men who took
part in the civil war? This question is
one which has caused any amount OF
discussion among medical men, and
now so high an authority as DIR.
George F. Shrady. president of-the Red
Cross society. and editor of the Medical
Record, says that the soldiers chances
of escaping with his life are 70 per
cent greater than 80 years ago. This,
the doctor declares, is largely the re-
suit of the advance of aseptic surgery.
That frightful scourge of the hospital
IN war time years ago, known as hos
pltal Sangrere, is nowadays SO rare
that it is recognized with difficulty.
There has been no end of debate pro
and con as to what the effects of the
! modern projectiles and rifle bullets
would be as to the result of the wounds
they would inflict. The rifle bullet of
today is totally different from that in
use during our late war. both in point
of velocity and general force, as well
as in form. Each of these differences
changes the effect. All this the sur
geonS know, but just what that effect
! would be in actual conflict has been, of
the penetrating and explosive effect of
the modern bullets and shells, the de-
struction of life would be supposed to
be correspondingly increased, but there
are very many ramifications to the
| question which DR.. Shrady discusses in
| a logical way, that carries new light to
the lay mind, as we'll as being of alb
Sorbing interest to the professional.
Dr. Shrady has been giving this sub
ject grave attention for some time past.
As president of the Red Cross society
! 1t has become necessary for him to be
! thoroughly familiar with what the
| corps of the society must prepare to
meet, and he has also been in close
consultation with the surgeons general
of the army and navy, the president
and the secretaries of war and navy.
The question as to what the soldier
who wears the blue is likely to suffer
! in his conflict with the Spaniard has
! been discussed and debated from all
standpoints. Thus DR.. Shrady has Sc
cured grasp of the situation which
enables him to speak with more force
and intelligence than almost any other
person in answer to the question pro-
pounded as to the chances of the Unit
ed States soldiers in battle.
| That there has been an advance in
| the systems employed in the care of
persons suffering from wounds or such
! diseases as are apt to attack large
bodies of men every one knows, but
that this advance has been so great as
to warrant the statement that man
goes into battle today with the chances
70 per cent greater, if he is wounded,
than they were 80 years ago, is reve-
lation. DR.. Shrady further states that
the danger confronting our men in the
form of yellow fever and kindred trOp-
ical diseases has been tremendously eX-
Or TOD NIA n r-frl or1fc
of the army and navy. he says. have
become thoroughly imbued with the be-
lief that an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure and thus the
medical corps will not wait for the men
to become sick, but will see to it that
they are in such perfect physical con-
dition as to in most instances be i'm
pregnable fortresses against the as
saults of disease.
When 1 asked DR.. .Shrady TO tell me
the difference, from a medical stand
point between our last war and the
present one, he said: War today is
slaughter by job lots. Modern methods
have largely eliminated the element of
personal bravery. TIE puniest of men
may stand behind a cannon, take his
range finder, figure out the right range,
touch button and destroy LOCO lives.
To a great extent battles are fought in
the dark. Shells are seen coming
through the air, perhaps from unknown
corners. They fall and death comes
like a bolt from the sky.
I'm the civil war methods were alto
gether different. Except as obscured by
the smoke of battle. the soldiers could
see their foes and their weapons There
was no giant machines for hurting tons
of death-dealing iron and steel through
the air from points miles and miles
away. When the Swamp Angel came
into existence we all thought 1t was
a marvel, and yet it was nothing COM
pared with the modern engines of war.
In those times, as my own experience
has taught me, in observing the men
who fought, the number of dead and
wounded often depended very largely
upon the personal conduct of the SOL
diers themselves. There was no ma
chine for dealing out bullets by whole
sale and, therefore, the effect was reg
ulated infinitely more by circum-
stances than it is today.
1.-The soldier who goes into a battle in
our present war with Spain must face
a storm of bullets which are just as apt !
to come from half a dozen machine /
guns as from a regiment of soldiers. |
These bullets fly at so many different /
angles that it is almost like a cross
fire at times, with the result that the |
soldiers are unable to protect them !
selves, as they were in the old days, |
when there was bullet for every gun, !
and no more. In spite of all this, how |
ever. I am inclined to think that our |
modern methods are the most yerciful, |
for the chances of a man being hit by |
a bullet and living are entirely altered !
from what they were in the old days"
do you consider these modern meth !
DDS more merciful from the fact that !
a soldier is more likely to be killed /
outright than used to be the case?"
IF bullet strikes a soldier in the |
head or some vital part, death is al I
most certain to be practically instan- |
taneous A man may survive for a /
few moments. but he is never likely to |
regain consciousness. If the bullet does |
not strike a vital part, then the hos
pital methods of today-and l am |
speaking of the field hospital-are such |
that unless there is such a shattering /
OF tissues and bones as to preclude the /
possibility of recovery. the man is al
remember while l was with the army, !
and in the hospitals during the civil |
war, that to amDutate a mans limb /
sometimes meant death would follow, |
not from the mere amputatiOn, but |
because of that frightful thing known
as hoGpital gangrene, which so often
made reamputations necessary.
Nov today there is no such thing as
hospital gangrene. At least if there is
it is so rare as to be unknown to the
majority of practitioners in hospitals.
Aseptic surgery has reached that stage
where gangrene is almost an impossi-
bility The result of this will be, in the
field hospitals, that when a man is