Evening star., 1915-11-16
Tremendous Betterment of
Technique Attained by
War Surgeons. -
GREAT ADVANCES MADE
IN APPLYING PRINCIPLES
Progress in Improvement and Adap-
tation Notable-Vast Strides
Forward by French.
BY HERBERT COREY.
Copyright. 1889

Copyright 1881
PARIS, October o3-Surgeons say
that no great discoveries have been
made as yet in this war. No one has
broken out a new trail from the hos
pital to health. No new process has
been invented and no new remedy for
human ills has been found. But there
has been a tremendous betterment OF
technique.
Nothing new is to be expected of u.s. y
the surgeons say. I'VE are all too busy
We have no time for experiments and
theory. But never in the history of the
world have wounds been as success
fully treated as they are today. We
are building up a tremendous mass OF
material, and after the war we-or
those who come after us-will study it.
In the end great advances are certain
to be made"
One of the most striking advances, to
the lay mind, is the manner in which
the X-ray is being utilized nowadays.
At the beginning of the war the X-ray
process was slow one. The patient
was taken to the laboratory, often at
great cost of pain. and hours sometimes
elapsed before the Photographic plates
were developed and placed in the hands
of the surgeon. War forced speeding
up. Lives of wounded men depended
upon the rapidity with which they We're
operated on.
1t has often been noted in this war
that the German is at his best in i'm
provement and adaptation, rather than
in invention. This was the case with
the X-ray work. There was no secret
about the process. but it was German
surgeon who first thought of eQuipping
motor car with fast apparatus. To-
day the whirls up to where the
wounded are gathered. Perhaps they
are by the roadside. The operator leaps
out. places his camera in position. turns
on his current, steps into his darkroom,
and in less than twenty minutes a per-
feet plate is placed before the operat-
ng surgeon.
Two French Improvements.
That was adaptation and improve
,nent. but the French have made a
vast stride forward-two vast strides,
in fact An army surgeon has invented
an apparatus very much like the de-
vice which is used for copying en-
cravings and pictures on an enlarged
scale. 1t is used with the ordinary X.
ray plate The plate shows the loca-
tion of theoullet in the injured mans
body, and the new device shows how
far in the surgeon must cut.
Any one can use it,, said an enthu-
siastic witness of an operation by this
means. TT locates the foreign sub
stance within the hundredth Of an
inch.'
actually to look inside the wounded
mans body while the operation is in
progress. The rays are thrown into
box-like apparatus, into which the
directing surgeon looks. Being able to
see both the operation and the foreign
body. he is able to give the operator
oral instruction. According to a re-
cent communication to the Academy
of Medicine this method has never yet
failed Another aid is the electro-vi-
brator. by which the current from a
powerful magnet is turned into the
body If foreign substance is i'm
bedded the indicator shows the fact.
Still another apparatus weighs but
thirty pounds or thereabouts and can
be carried in an ordinary suitcase.
Long before the war DIR. Alexis Car
rel. the talented young French surgeon.
who has been connected with the
Rockefeller Institute in New York. an
nounced that he had been able to splice
arteries and veins and to transplant
organs 1t is now understood that he
has been able to make practical use of
his method. DIR. Carrel has not yet
made announcement, and 1t is to be
presumed that little will be heard of
II until he sets forth the results he
has obtained in true scientific form.
but there seems no doubt that he has
in at least one instance successfully
transplanted a kidney and thereby
saved mans live.
Some New Remedies.
Some old household remedies that had
been discarded years ago are now said
TO have been returned to favor. Away
back In 1900 the Juice OF garlic was
used to prevent and to cure the sup
puration of wounds. Then 1t was ap-
parently forgotten. In later years sur
geons have invented scores of new an
tiseptics. but many of them proved te
be 80 powerful that they injured the
tissue Two English surgeons have
been experimenting with the old-time
remedy and hnd-according to their re.
port-that It checks suppuration and &c
promotes the flow OF lymph that in
forty-eight hours the wound IS well un.
der control. Half a dozen other mod
ern antiseptics are also being tried
while Profs. Leclainche and Vallee have
discovered a new polyvalent serum
which acts as preventive agains,
gangrenous infection. Chloride OF
magnesium also is being used according
to a recent statement. II does not in.
jure the dangerous microbes. but stim.
ulates their natural enemies. by which
the bad microbes are destroyed.
Trench rheumatism Is being treated
with radiun. and a solution Of nitrat,
of silver in proportion of one part t.
100000 of water is being used on thu
Germans. new method of making
plaster casts now enables the maker o
artificial limbs to turn out a leg tha
looks alrnos, IKE the old one. Fo
years men who have been crippled OF
who suffer from some forms of nerv,
paralysis have had their injured limb
re-educated by various sorts of ma
chimes. The man who suffers from :
etin knee. for example, Will be placed
on a machine which very carefully
hour after hour. keeps up a movement
in the affected part.
Il don't believe in those things" sew
eral surgeons have announced lately
"Crutches are bad for the injured man
too The best thing is to tell him t.
take hold of a chair back and no,
about in that way. BY and by tn,
strength will come back to his mus
cles. A crutch makes him lop-sidet
and he gets to depend on it SO tina
long after he might have been walkin,
he fs still looping about with hi
crutch."
Find the Eye Is Tough.
What advances has the war enable,
you to make in eye surgery" / aske,
DR.. Louis Borsch of Philadelphia, VIII,
Is in charge of the eye department a
the Hospital Of the Grand PaIaIs here.
mo advances except in technique
said ne. But II has taught US that tn,
eye 10 very tough member. 1t cal