Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-02-04
AUSTRALIANS FIT UP
HOSPITAL IN ONE DAY
Hotel Cleared, Cleaned and Furnish
ell From First Bedstcad to
Last Towel.
INVENT THINGS THEY LACK
American Hustle Has "Nothing on"
These Men and Women, Who
Work With Great Energy to Give
Aid to Suffering Soldiers.

Especial Cable to Tho Times Dispath II
PARIS. February 3-AmerIcnn hus-
tie has nothing on" the Australian
variety. One day a train stopped near
tho Golf Hotel. n red, rambling build
Ing on the top OF the northern ciIfrs
OF Wimereux, and from 1t descended
40 Australian men and women. Twelve
hours later It had been converted into
the Australian Voluntary Hospital. and
III wounded soldiers were being
treated.
Within half n day tho hotel had
been cleared. cIcnned, fitted and fur
nished. from The first bedstead to the
last towel. 1t would ordinarily have
taken week.
made or invented There was. of
course. no operating room. A room
having been decided upon as suitable
| Tor that purpose. there were no work.
men TO transform it. Three women
nurses set to. They scraped every inch
Of paper Off the walls at n terrific rate.
and then the tallest mounted an Inn
proviscd scanold and manipulated the
whitcwash brush.
case for the surgical instruments
exhibition case for chocolates which
had stood I'm the hotel lobby 1t was
tho spirit OF the pioneer.
In tho first seven days Of the ope-
rating rooms existence twenty-nino
serious operations were performed
there
Before the end of the FIRST twelve
hours the N-ray apparatus was In
stalled ard working. iierschel Harris.
chief N-Rny man. invented simple
apparatus which proved of great value
In examining N-ray negatives. II is
box. one side of which consists of
ground glass screen illuminated from
! within by an electric lamp. This cnn be
brought right up to the side OF the OPP
operating table. go that tho surgeon can
refer TO It rs he works.
STAFF ACCOMMODATED
IN ANOTHER BUILDING
The staff which numbers I20, in
Guiding thirty-siS nursing sisters. In
accommodated in n building apart. so
that when OFF duty they do not have to
be I'm the atmosphere Of suffering and
death.
In the golf clubhouse there is
ARCHAEOLOGICAL laboratory, for there Is
nothing which this wonderfully
equipped hospital lacks. Such In bora
tory liz almost Indispensable to u war
hospital for testing such germs as
those or tetnnus. gangrcne. enteric.
the latter being one of tho most i'm
poriant diseases TO diagnose
II is one of the discoveries In a bac-
teriological laboratory that gangrenous
wounds must I've treated by being kept
open, because the bacillus Is anaerobe
that is to say, It cannot live in air,
so stitches arc now taboo. and the
wound, swabbed with hydrogen pc
roNidc and irrigated with carboiic or
saline solution, Is kept open until the
bacilli have been destroyed The bnc-
THEOLOGICAL laboratory will show at
once whether Il wound Ia infected or
H.. fro
ment Is determined accordingly
AS regards the outside equipment O!
the hospital. there are available nearly
nifty motor ambulances.
The personnel is almost entirely Aus
tralian. The medical star volunteered
at Il meeting OF Australian doctors who
were In London when the war broke
out. All the nursing sisters, with a
few exceptions. are Australians, and IL
is in Keeping with the general spirit
which pcrYadcs the "A. V. H." that
some some of them actually paid their
own fares from Australia TO come and
offer their services; and they all work
with splendid energy. which may be
Imagined from the fact that on one oc-
casion work went ON continuously IN
the operating theatre from 6 o'clock
in tAc morning till a. NJ. on the fol-
lowing day.
The whole Installation OF the hos
pitai shows signs of this busincsslike,
efficient disposition, coupled, Of course
with that pioneer ingenuity OF the
Colonial Here IL IA new splint which
permits of the dressing of Il wound
without tho necessity Of removing the
splint; there is simple apparatus for
the extension OF wounded arm. "If
You haven't got n thing. invent It,"
seems to be the motto: and in war surg
cry so many unusual situations arise
mat the faculty is of sevenfold value