Weekly journal-miner., 1916-12-27

in the course of the present war, there
 has been as yet no single discovery
 that has rivaled Dr. Alexis Carrels
 method of the treatment of septic wounds as the most notable addition
 to surgical science, according 10
 senior surgeon of the American Am
 bulance Hospital at Ncuilly, near
 Paris, who has just returned to this
 country. "The French hospitals arc
 slowly adopting the Carrel method"
 he said, "and in the American Am bulance Hospital we have been using
 it for several months with gratifying results which seem to show that pr.
 Carrel has proved his thesis.
 The reduction of septic wound
 treatment to an almost mathematical
 basis is a feature of the Carrel meth
 cd 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 given wound, the
 surgeon may perhaps figure with pre- ciseness the day on which the wound
 will be in shape to close completely.
 The two-hourly irrigation of the
 wound by the Dal,in or other solution is highly important feature of the
 Carrel method, but the most interest ing factor is the daily microscopic count of the germs. These germs are taken from given areas Of the wound,
 placed under a microscope and count ed, and from this count the progress
 of the healing is gauged. There arc
 perhaps less germs today than yes terday, so many less tomorrow; and
 so the rate of the diminishing suppu- ration 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 Hospit al is the best single thing which Am erica can do for France" he said. 'The hospital has been at all times since its establishment two years ago one of the best hospitals in the world; i it enjoys the confidence of the French sanitary service to such a degree that it ordinarily receives only the most difficult cases The most severe shell wounds arc 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 1. this knowledge in their ordinary civil ! ian practice al home, but should the | United States be at war within the next l generation ii will find that many of . its surgeons in civilian practice are . acquainted with every sort of wound . now known in warfare. At the hos pital, further, there has been constant | cooperation between the surgeons and dentists. An ordinary operation is that Of grating bone cut from the tibit or shin bone into the lower jaw I have seen young soldiers so fright fully wounded in the face that had they been my sons I should have al most preferred they should have died. but ii is not for the surgeons to let the spark of life be cxtinguishcd through neglect of surgical science.
 "Thc appreciation, gratitude and entire simplicity of the wounded French soldier is something that gets one absolutely. l have never seen the slightest resemblance to anything that could be called bravado in his makeup The American surgeons feel that they cannot 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 ali of the Allied and 7 neutral countries. examining with par iioular interest the many forms of special apparatus which the Amcri- i cans have developed for the manage [ Incnt of fractured cxtrcmitics These | devices have been originated and im- 1 proved upon largely by the younger { members Of our surgical staff. When ( q young surgeon comes 10 Us from { Nncrica for service at the hospital he | is assigned 10 ward with request , that he improve inc apparatus-aud i il is rarely that he fails to do SO. Itra has been wonderful for the older men | to see how readily and successfully ( the younger men have taken up this | work. It