Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-08-12
SAY PRESENT WAR
T WILL Be HUMANE
Advance in Sanitation and Sur
gerry Given as Cause by U.
S. Army Surgeons.
FEWER lAMPUTATlONS
WILL BE NECESSARY
Mortality Will Be Greater, but
= Deaths Will Be In
y Simultaneous.


states army surgeons at New York
stations agree that the present Eu-
ropean war will be settled in much
shorter order than most persons be-
lieve possible, and that It will be the
most humane ever waged. There will
be no lengthy mortality list from dis
ease and no army of cripples will
result, they are convinced
Recent advances In surgery and
sanitation will be the cause, The
nigh-power, quick firing military
rifle and the development in artil-
iery will, however, tend to make the
mortality list greater than in any
previous war. Those who die will die
quickly. Deaths will be due to ac-
curacy, long range and rapid firing
and not to disease or infected
wounds.
"Gangrene and Infection" declared
an army surgeon who is recognized
as an authority. will be practically
unknown quantities in the wars Of
the future.
Until the Russo Japanese war
black powder and large calibre bull
let comprised the ammunition. of the
armies IF the world The bullets
were of unsheathed lead. creased 70
overcome friction in the barrel. Their
muzzle velocity was less than one
half that of the missiles in arms now
employed.
Up to that time bayonet and sabre
charges, prolific of hideous and dan
gerous wounds, were common. Such
re n
val. The bullets now used are of
less diameter than the ordinary lead
pencil and are jacketed with steel,
nickel or lead. They have a tre-
mendous velocity and low trajec-
tory.
Infection Followed Wounds.
Wounds from the old-time musket
and military rifle, with their soft,
mushrooming bullet, resulted in
shattered bones and crushed flesh.
Infection of gunshot wounds was all
most inevitable. A wound in the abb
domen was necessarily fatal. The
death rate from wounds was enor-
nous.
Nowadays, with the military rifle,
such as all the great powers use
and the degree to which surgery has
advanced, a soldier may be shot
through what once was regarded as
a vital spot and walk unsupported
TO the field hospital at the rear. Such
cases are of record.
Great Britain uses the Lee End
field rifle, calihre TT NM, the bullet
coated with cupro- nickel. French
soldiers are equipped with the Lebel
rife. calibre NM, with bullets
coated with nickel. Germany en-
ploys the Mauser rife, calibre nm,
with bullets steel and copper coated.
:. Russia uses Mossin- Nagant rifles,
taiibre 1852 nm, with bullets cupro-
nickel coated. Austria's small arm
is the Mannlicher, calibre NM,
with steel sheet coat over the bull
let.
beyond $50 yards the wounds in
fiieted by such bullets are clean cut,
frequently passing through bone It's
sue without splintering. The arter-
les are seldom injured by such
wounds, as the bullet. going through
the flesh, pushes the blood vessels to
one side.
Amputation Not Necessary.
The advance in surgery, moreover.
has been such that wounds which
were formerly fatal, or at least ne
cessitated amputation, are now
healed without such an operation.
Formerly a bullet wound through
Joint, such as the knee or elbow, ne
cessitated the amputation of the
limb. Now such a wound Is opened
and dressed and heals without am
putation.
Russia, which once Jagged behind
the other great powers in medical
and sanitary efficiency, learned a
lesson in her war with Japan.
Russia, France, Great Britain, Ger
many and Austria now use vaccine to
combat typhoid, once the fatal
sconrge of every campaign
All these nations have been busy
in the last twenty years building up
a fine medical corps. Their hospital
services employ the latest ideas in
army sanitation, many of them copied
from the hospital service of the
United States army. The hospital
corps are composed of especially
selected men trained in caring for the
sick and wounded, as well as in pre-
ventive work
Every army division is supplied
with four field hospitals, each capable
of caring for 10S patients. There are
also two evacuation hospitals, with a
capacity of 700 each, for each division.
These may be from twenty-five to
fifty miles in the rear of the army,
and it is from them that the more
seriously wounded are shipped back
to the hospitals at home.
Instructed In First Aid.
Besides the hospital corps, which
has bearers on the field of battle
ready to rush the wounded back to
the field hospitals, each officer in the
American and European armies is
instructed in first aid treatment, so
that there need be no delay in car
ing for the wounded and no excuse
for allowing Infection to set in, even
in the heat of battle.
The prevention methods and inn
proved sanitary arrangements which
nave developed within the last gem
Grafton in the armies of the world
are generally regarded as even more
important than the treatment of the
wounded. In the Civil War eight sol
diers died of disease to every one who
succumbed to wounds. Experts have
figured that in the present European
war not more than three will die of
disease to one killed in battle.
THE camp pestilences have always
been typhoid and dysentery. Until
about fifteen years ago the causes Of
these diseases and the prevention
we're not known Now both have
been ascertained and are effectively
fought. The typhoid germ is attacked
Nv vaccination and thu dysentery
nsrasite by sterilizing drinking water
tho Cnanish War fhare fuyara