South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-08-29
GUT DOWN DEATHS
FROM SICKNESS
Advance of Surgical and Med
iCaI Science InSureS Lesser
InrOadS on Army by Disease.
BY \ L. 5. ARMY SURGEON.

In the American Civil war eight
soldiers died of disease to one from
wounds. Experts eNpect that in the
present general European struggle not
more than three will fall victim to
sickness to one killed on the field of
battle.
Such is the advance of army sani-
tation and army surgery in fifty years.
The Americans and the Japanese have
been the leaders. The United States
army hospitals have installed many
remarkable innovations since the
Spanish-American war with its dread
full lesson in the danger of typhoid
and these new ideas have been adopt
ed by the army surgeon of old world
powers.
So it is expected that the present
war. the greatest yet in history. also
Will be the most humane. There will
be no disprOportionate mortality list
from disease and no army of cripples
as an aftermath.
The modern high power. quick-fir-
ing military rifle and the development
in artillery will have much TO do with
the change.
Those who die will die more quickly
Gangrene and infection Will be practi-
cally unknown quantities. it is
thought.
Before the RussO-Japanese conflict
the armies the world over used a high
Calibre bullet. made of unsheathed
lead and creased TO overcome friction
in the barrel.
The muzzle velocity was less than
half that of the missiles now en-
ployed.
Then. to. bayOnet and sabre
charges were more common. These
resulted in hideOus wounds, very diff
nCult for surgeons to handle.
The bullets which are flying in Eu-
rome today are of less diameter than
the ordinary lead pencil They are
jacketed with nickel, lead or steel and
have tremendous velocity.
The soft. mushrOoming bullet of the
old day resulted in the SCATTERING o.
bones and the crushing. rather than
cutting. of tissues. Infection was al
most inevitable. the grease being es-
pecially unsanitary 4 wound in the
abdomen was considered necessarily
fatal. The death rate among the
wounded was enormous.
In recent campaigns there are in
stances where soldiers shot in what
were once considered vital spots have
walked unsupported To the field hos
pitfalls
Germany used a Mauser rife with
a bullet of nm. Calibre. steel and
copper coated. Great Britain's mis-
sile is the Lee-Enfeld. calibre - ann,
the coating being cupro-nickel
Use Nickel Coated Bullets
The French weapon is the Bebel
rifle of $ nm. calibre. with bullets
coated with nickel. Russia uses Mos
sin-Nagant rifles. Calibre 7.62 mm..
ws-h bullets cupro-nl excl coated. Aus
trIa's chief small arm is the Mann
licher. calihre nm. with a sseel
sheet over the tip.
Hitting a man beyond $50 yards the
wounds inflicted by all these bullets
are clean cut. They frequently pass
through bone tissue without splinter
ing.
When meeting an artery the bullet
usually pushes 10 To one side and goes
around without cutting the blood
channel
Amputations are very rare compar-
ed with wars OF more than fifty years
ago. \ bullet wound through a joint.
such as the knee or the elbow then
necessitated the amputation OF the
limb. Now such a would is easily
opened and dressed.