Arizona republican., 1916-12-26
GREAT ADVANCE
 IN CARING FUR
 SEPTIC WOUNDS
TRepubllcan A. p. Leased wirel

HtpuDlCan A. F. Leased wire
 NEW YORK, Dec 25.-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 Carrers method of the treatment of septic wounds as the most notable addition to surgical science, according to a senior surgeon of the American Ambulance Hospital at NeuillN, near Paris, who has just returned to this country. The French hospitals are slowly adopting the Car rel method" he said, and in the Amer ic2u Ambulance Hospital we have been using it for several months with Sratl- flying results, which seem to show that Dr. Carrel has proved his thesis.
 The reduction of septic wound treatment to an almost mathematical basis is a feature of the Carlel method that suggests the fanciful thought of the possibility that the day may come when surgeons work will in some respects be like that Of train dis patcher. Having brought to him from day to day the microscopic count of the germs in given wound, the surgeon may perhaps figure with preciseness the day on which the wound will be in shape to close completely. The two- hourly irrigation of the wound by the Dakin or other solution is d highly inn portant feature of the Carrel method, hut the most Interesting factor is the daily microscopic count of the germs These germs are taken from given areas of the wound, placed under a microscope and counted, and from this count the progress of tie healing is gauged There are perhaps less germs today than yesterday, so many less to- morrow; and so the rate of the dimin- ishng suppuration is established. The surgeon, almost without looking at the wound, can determine. when the count gets down to given number, that it is safe to close it.
 "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 it's establishment two years ago one of the best hospitals in the world: it enjoys the confidence of the French Sanitary Service to such a degree that it ordin arily 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 prac- tice at home. but should the United States he at war within the next gen eration it will find that many of its surgeons in civilian practice are ac- quainted with every sort of wound now known in warfare. At the hospital. further there has been constant CO., operation between the surgeons and dentists. An ordinary operation is that of grating bone cut from the tibia or shin-bone into the lower jaw. l have seen young soldiers so fright fully wounded in the face that had they been my sons l should have almost preferred they would have died, but 1t is not for the surgeons to let the spark of life be eXtinguished through neglect of surgical science.
 The appreciation. gratitude and en- tire simplicity of the wounded French soldier is something that gets one ab- solutely l have never seen the slight est resemblance to anything that could be called bravado in his makeup. The American surgeons feel that they can not be kind enough to the soldiers.
 "All through France the efficiency of the American Ambulance Hospital has become known, and distinguished surgical men are daily visitors. They come not only from the French hos pitals but from all of the allied and neutral countries, examining with par tiCular interest the many forms of spe- cial apparatus which the Americans have developed for the management of fractured eXtremities These devices have been originated and improved upon largely by the younger members of our surgical staff. When d young surgeon comes to us from America for service at the hospital he is assigned to q ward with a request that he im- prove the appaTatus-and it is rarely that he fails to do so It has b,een won- derful for the older men to see how readily and successfully the younger men have taken up this work
 There are probably 300 wounded soldiers under the American Ambu- lance surgeons at this moment. There are J15 in the hospitals at NeUilly. and Il thousand more in auxliary hospitals under our care At Neuilly the entire hospital force including the orderlies and other attendants numbers some 590 men and women Among them we have many of birth and education serv- ing as orderlies. An Episcopal clergy man of Philadelphia did this work all summer and an American college pro- lessor who came in asking simply for something to do has been very valu able in taking the histories of cases.
 The spirit of the wounded them selves is seen in a little incident that recently occurred at Neuilly. One lit tie soldier who had been nicknamed