Evening star., 1902-08-23
Surgeon General Rixey's I'm
-portant Plan.
OLD OBSERVATORY SITE
BUILDINGS TO BE ERECTED ON
THAT GROUND.
Present Hospital Entirely Inadequate
to Needs of the Service-Proposed
School Of instruction.

Two important plans for the improvement
OF the naval medical service are being for
mulated by Surgeon General Rixey of the
navy. They contemplate the building of
new naval hospital on the site OF the
Old naval observatory in this city, ana the
opening of a school in the museum building
on the same grounds, where assistant sur
geons entering the service can be given
special course of training for several
months before entering upon the active
duties of the medical service of the navy.
The present naval hospital, which is To-
Gated near the marine barracks is entirely
too small, it's facilities inadequate. and its
sanitary condition not what it should be
for hospital. The institution has been
used for many years, and the recent growth
of the Navy and Marine corps make it en-
tirely inadequate as an institution to care
for the sick of these two services.
Sell the Old Building.
The plan of Surgeon General RiXey Is to
either sell this old hospital or have 1t turned
over to another branch of the government
for other uses. If it is sold the proceeds or
the sale, 1t is estimated will be nearly suf-
ficient to build the proposed new building.
The plan will be submitted to Congress at
an important part of the annual report OF
the surgeon general. The strongest argu-
ment that the surgeon general Will bring TO
bear on the matter to Congress in further-
ance of his new plan will be to show them
tha present hospital. There are no quar-
ters in this hospital for sick officers, with
the exception of a small room with IRON
grated windows and doors, which was orig
inally intended as a restraining room for
lInatics.
There are no fsolating wards, and the
only place where patients suffering with
contagious diseases can be cared for is in
the attic. AS the government is charged
with the expense of caring for sick marines
and sailors, the bills which have to be
paid to local civil institutions have been
large and on the increase
An Ideal Site.
The site of the proposed new hospital is
regarded as ideal. The building will be
erected according to the pavilion plan that
is, having each ward in a building by It
self and all connected with the administra-
tion building by a covered passage. There
are several acres in the old naval observa-
tory grounds and a high point, which
oyerlooks the Potomac and Arlington on
one side and the city on the other, has
been selected for a hospital site The
ground is covered with oak trees, and ev-
cry condition is declared to be ideal for
hospital site. Communication can be had
with the navy yard and marine barracks
by water and also by ambulance service,
which is excellent. For this reason the
location of the hospital at greater dis
tance from the barracks and the navy yard
is not regarded as a drawback.
The opening OF the medical school, al
| though an Independent proposition from the
hospital, will really be an adjunct to that
institution. No new building will be needed
for this purpose. it Is the intention of
the surgeon general to utilize the present
museum building.
Importance Of Special Training.
Recruits to the medical staff of the navy
are required to be graduate physicians. but
the officers of the service have found that
the medical colleges of the country do not
give training to their graduates in several
important features of the medical service
of the navy. Among these may be men
toned military training, the keeping of
medical journals and papers pertaining to
| the sick, and, perhaps the most important
| of all training, meteorological and labor
atory work.
| An instance of the Importance of this
| training has recently come to the notice of
| the department through a report from the
| medical officer on board the battle ship
Kentucky in Chinese waters. request
| was made from a Chinese boy school for
| the aid of the medical officer of the ship to
| diagnose what appeared to be an epidemic
| of cholera in the school, The officer was
| thoroughly up in psychological work, and
| Of cholera, the microscope revealed that
| the trouble was simply poison from eating
| fowl In this connection attention is called
| to the fact that the graduate physician Of
| the present day knows little if anything
| of making an analysis as was required in
| this instance. He depends in his city prac-
| tice on referring all hard propositions of
| this character for analysis to the ever
| present expert
Every Member an Expert.
It is Surgeon General Rixey's intention to
| make every member Of the medical service
Of the navy an expert along these lines,
and 1t is for this purpose he intends estab-
| fishing his medical training school. The
| expense Of running this school will be
practically nothing. The medical examin-
! ing board, which has been located in New
York, has been ordered to Washington, and
| the members of this board will constitute
| the faculty OF the new school. The doc
| tors will also be given clinical practice In
| connection with the hospital, which will be
| great advantage to them as well as fur
| nishing the hospital with an expert medi-
| cal force The new school will be opened
| this winter, and the hospital plan win be
gotten through Congress, If possible, at
| the coming session.