Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-10-26
Some Corrections.
The Medico Chirurgical Hospital of
Philadelphia, Pa, and the Sick

Dear S1r:-YOur issue OF oepterl-
Der 10th, contains an article by DR..
T. c. Riley, relating to his son, J..
c. Riley. member of the Seventh
Ohio Volunteer Regiment, in which
the doctor makes number of as
sertions which we feel should be
corrected through the columns OF
your valuable paper.
On September Ist the Med1co
Chirurgical Hospital of Philldel.
phia sent a train to Camp Alger to
bring the sick soldiers to the hos
pital, among the number being ].
Z. Riley, of Ohio. On his admis-
sion in the hospital he was found
to be suffering from typical attack
of typhoid fever; a few days later
his father, DR.. T. c. Riley, visited
the hospital, aud the physician in
chief. Prof. John V. Shoemaker,
asked the doctor to see his son with
him. DR.. Riley being of the HON.
epathic creed, Prof. Shoemaker re-
quested the doctor to prescribe for
his son and promised to have all di-
rections which he should give prop
erly attended to.
DR.. Riley, in his article, gave an
elaborate description of the cores
pondence incident to the removal
of his son to the Hahneman Hos
pital. suffice it to say in this con-
nection that Our hospital IS respon-
sible to the government for every
patient consigned to it until such a
time as the physician in charge
considers the patient in condition
to resume his duties in the service,
therefore making it impossible for
Prof. Shoemake to grant the doc
tors request until he received an
order from Surgeon General Stern
berg.
The ward occupied by Mr.. Riley
was large, commodious and we'll
ventilated, each patient having
more than the required amount OF
fresh air space. The city health au-
thorities, who made a careful in
spection, pronounced the hygienic
condition perfect in every detail.
BecauseDr. Riley is not in accord
with the method of Treating typhoid
fever as carried on in our hospital,
as we'll as by all scientific practi-
TONERS of the regular school of med
icine, he proceeds to criticise in a
most uncompli1nentary manner the
treatment his son received, simply
because it does not agree with the
teachings of his school, yet it is a
we'll known fact that the most sue
cessful members of his sect resort
to this "criticised" treatment-as
the daily newspaper is not the
proper medium to discuss treat
ment, we feel that by submit
ting our statistics of the work
done in the wlrds Of the
Medico- Chirurgical hospital the lai-
ty will be enabled to judge whether
his son would have been more apt
to have died in our institution las
the doctor statesl than in the one
to which he was transferred; there
were admitted into our hands 435
soldiers, of which number 248
were suffering from typhoid fever
in all stages, the mortality being Is
equivalent to 3 per cent of the total
number or 81 per cent of the ty-
phoid cases, while statistics of the
most recent epidemics Of typhoid
fever show a mortality of from to
20 per cent.
We may say that Mr.. Squire's
son made a perfect recovery and
and we are sure from the express
sions of his father on leaving the
hospital, that he was we'll satisfied
with everything pertaining to our
institution.
Prof. Shoemaker and the entire
staff of the hospital extended to
Dr.. Rilev all the courtesy they
could and endeavored to assist him
as we'll as all of the friends of the
soldiers who have made inquiries
in making the parents as comfort
able as possible and we feel that the
debtors statement was not only un-
called for but to those specially &C
quainted with all the facts On un-
lust criticism-it's but the old
axiom "those who do the most re-
ceive the least.
GEO w. PFROMM, M. D.
Medico Chirurgical Hospital,