Evening star., 1916-12-26
FRANCE APPRECIATES
AMERICAN AMBULANCE
DR.. Carrel's Treatment of Septic
Wounds Greatest Discovery
of War.

NEW YORK. December 2s.-Great as
have been the surgical achievements IN
the course of the present war. there
has been as yet no single discovery
that has rivaled DR.. Alexis Carrer-
method of the treatment of septic
wounds as the most notable addition
to surgical science. according to
senior surgeon of the American Ambu-
lance Hospital at Neuilly. near Paris,
who has just returned to this country
The French hospitals slowly
adopting the Carrel method" he said,
"and In the American Ambulance Hos
pital we have been using 1t for sew
eral months with gratifying results.
which seem to show that DIR. Carrel has
proved his thesis.
The reduction of septic wound treat
ment to an almost mathematical basis
is a feature of the Carrel method that
suggests the fanciful thought of the
possibility that the day may come when
a surgeons work will in some respects
be like that of train dispatcher.
Having brought to him from day to day
the microscopic count of the germs in
a given wound, the surgeon may per
haps figure with precise ness the day OF
which the wound Will he in shape to
close completely. The two-hourly ir-
rigation of the wounu by the Dakin or
other solution is highly important
feature of the Carrel method, but the
most interesting feature is the daily
microscopic count of the germs. These
germs taken from given areas of
the wound, placed under a microscope
and counted, and from this count the
progress of the healing is gauged.
There are perhaps less germs today
than yesterday. SO many less tomorrow.
and so the rate of the diminishing sup
( tah sGha Thn c,trt
almost without looking at the wound
can determine, when the count gets
down to a given number, that 1t is safe
| to close il.
Training American Surgeons.
| The American Ambulance Hospital
| is the best single thing which America
! can do for France" he said. THE hos
pital has been at all times since its es
| tablishment two years ago one Of the
best hospitals in the world: 1t enjoys
the confidence Of the French sanitary
service to such degree that it ordt-
narily receives only the most difficult
cases. The most severe shell wounds
are constantly encountered. There are
scores of young American surgeons
who, from time to time serving at the
| hospital have become familiar with
these phases of surgery. They may
rarely have occasion to use this knowl-
| edge in their ordinary civilian practice
at home, but should the United States
| be at war within the next generation
it will find that many of its surgeons
| in civilian practice are acquainted with
every sort of wound now known In war
fare. At the hospital. further, there
has been constant cooperation between
| the surgeons and dentists. An ordinary
! operation is that of grating bone cut
from the tibia or shin bone into III"
lower jaw. l have seen young soldier"
SO frightfuIly wounded in the face that
had they been my sons / should haN"
! almost preferred they should have died,
! but it is not for the surgeons to let the
spark of life be extinguished through
neg lect of surgical science.
! THE appreciation. gratitude and entlro
! simplicity of the wounded French soldier
| is something that gets one absolutely.
| l have never seen the slightest resent
! blance to anything that could be called
bravado in his makeup. The American
| surgeons feel that they cannot he kind
enough to the soldiers.
"All through France the efficiency or
| the American Ambulance Hospital has De
| come known and distinguished surgical
men are daily visitors. They come not
only from the French hospitals. but from
| all of the allied and neutral countries. ex-
/ amining with particular interest the MANY
| forms of special apparatus which thu
Americans have developed for the man
agement OF fractured extremitieS These
devices have been originated and i'm
proved upon largely by the younger meni-
bers of our surgical staff When young
surgeon comes to from America for
service at the hospital he is assigned TO
( a ward with a request that he improve
/ the apparatus-and it is rarely that he
fails TO do So 1t has been wonderful for
/ the older men to see how readily and sue
/ cessfully the younger men have taken Up
this work