The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-11
A HUMAN SHAMELESS.
A Famous Doctor Describes the Dis=
position of 500 Surgical Cases in
One Day.

position of 500 Surgical Cases in
One Day.
Sir william MacCormac, in the Lancet,
gives the following description of the med
icaI work following upon the reverse at
the Tugela river
Dec. lev earrived at Chieveley sta
ton about l 80 p. m. yesterday. The can
nonading had ceased about l o'clock. We
found the station occupied by a hospital
train under Maj. Brazier-Creagh, r. A.
NJ c., and every one availa Die helping to
provide comforts for the freight it car
ried. There were 119 wounded in the train.
They had been taken on board direct from
the field, the train having run into the act
ual scene of action; in fact it was ordered
back by the principal medical officer two
shells having fallen close to it. This train
carried the first results of the battle, and
it was a very distressing sight The
wounded filled the carriages just as they
had come from the field; every wound
had been dressed, and had been dressed
extremely well, under fire. A noticeable
feature was the fact that very few of these
dressings needed readjustment Rife
splints, tourmquets and other dressings
had been adjusted, carefully and deliber-
ately, under circumstances of great diff
Guilty and danger.
Having obtained the necessary informa-
ton and permission, we walked to the
field hospitals of the Fourth, Fifth. and
Sixth Brigades, situated about three miles
from Chieveley, under the crest of a hill
ock about 400 yards outside the fire zone
The state of these hospitals at the time
of our visit G:30 p. NO. is almost beyond
description. Capt. Symons and myself
visited the three operating tents one after
another, where my opinion was continual
ly requested by the medical officers in
|
Culling, Mai Wilkinson, and Maj. Young
about various cases. Each of the three
operating tents contained two operating
tables, and as fast as a patient was taken
off the table another took his place Await
ing their turn the wounded were lying out
side in rows, which were being continually
augmented by the civilian bearers coming
in from the field. AS each wounded man
reached the hospital he was served with
a hot cup of bovTil, large cans of which
were boiling outside the tents
The way in which the wounded had been
dressed upon the field and each man tick
eted with the nature of his wound his
name, and regiment, was excellent, and
was very useful for Identification. This.
also saved much time at the field hospi ais.
| because the seriously wounded could be
at once Disseminated from the more triv-
| ial cases The latter went away at once
to the tents, and the former were redress
! ed ana operated upon WITCH Unnecessary ny
the four officers of each of the field hos
pitfalls and the three surgeons Of each of
| the bearer companies. The praise of the
! regimental officers and men in respect TO
| the way in which the Royal Army Medi-
cal Corps had done its duty under heavy
fire was unanimous and unstinted. An Of
! ficer OF The Devons, wounded in the foot,
| told me that he managed 10 get to a hut
| near the bank of the river which was be-
| ing used as dressing station. This hut
was continually under heavy fire. and he
| described the behavior of the medical Off
GERS as magnificent
The spectacle at the field hospital was
most painful. Ambulance wagon after wa
| gon and stretcher squad after stretcher
| souad came in while l was there pouring
in the wounded some of whom had died
| on the way and could unfortunately only
| be carried to the mortuary tents. The
work performed in the operating tents
was, in my opinion, of great efficiency, the
operations being deliberately carried out
with skill and dispatch under the very
trying circumstances of intense heat, hur-
ry and excitement all round. The Royal
Army Medical corps officers of these hos
pitfalls had started their surgical work
about a. M, and when l visited them
in the evening they were still hard at 1t,
having had no food meanwhile, and no
time for rest, and the work went on for
hours afterward. / gave notice in many
cases where / was asked, and advised
against operation i'm the case of poor
fellow with fearful shell wound of the
hip. Altogether some 800 patients passed
through the field hospitals during the
| day. The men showed the utmost pluck
and endurance: there was not the small
est dependency, the predominant feeling
| being anxiety to return ana fight again.
| This was very splendid OF them after
such a day as they had experienced. and
makes one feel very proud of their fine
rnettle.
The hospital trains rapidly took them