Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-11-26
BULLETS, NOT DISEASE,
KILL MODERN SOLDIER
Percentage Of Deaths Extremely
Low, Says d.. Woods
Hutchinson.
BY EDWARr PRICE BELL.
{CssresDonAenee OF TIE Evening Sta
01A Chicago Daily News.)


a1A Chicago Daily Nsws)
Copyright 1sl7)
LONDON. England. November 6.-One
,f the most cheering men who have
visited London during tho war is DR..
Woods Hutchinson. who came over
with letters Of Introduction from
President Wilson and who recently has
visited the British, French and italian
fronts. In a brief conversation I had
with DR.. Hutchinson at his hotel he
vtatsd that the medical service IN this
sountry had reached a degree Of per-
lection wholly unknown In past wara
As . matter Of fact said he. dis
Sass hss bssn practically wiped out
lnnong ths soldfsry. War; whole dam
1sr to-day - b it, legitimate risks
hose Of wounds and battle Casualties
b foemer times II was the reverse
soldisfs used to die from disease at
hom stx to nina times the rate at
which they died from wounds. Now We
aavs twenty deaths from wounds to
avery one from disease
Deaths From Disease Few.
TT used to be thought extravagant
to say that for every man killed in
the old style Of warfare his weight in
Iead was shot away. To kill q man in
this war requires about four tons of
projectiles and explosives. 1t costs
more money and effort to take human
life than 1t ever did before. for the
same ingenuity that invented engines
Of destruction also has invented
means Of defense and protection,
Probably the total death rate from
battle casualties does not exceed O
5 per cent. AS to the death rate from
disease on the western front, II is rep
resented by q contemplate figure
about one-tenth Of per cent.
Quick Work In Hospitals.
Hospitals are now pushed close up tc
the firing line, SO that wounds may be
operated upon within a few hours after
they are made. I have been in French
and British hospitals containing be-
tween 5000 and 1000 beds within twelve
miles Of the German guns. This means
the difference between life and death te
thousands Of men. Thorough and radi.
cal operations must be made quickly
You cannot wait to send a man back
40. so or perhaps 100 miles to the
rear, because wounds are badly in
fected. and you have not only to re-
move the lacerated fragments of tissue
but to lift out almost in one piece all
the flesh surrounding 1t. When every
bit Is removed in this way the wounds
will heal in about two weeks"
DIR. Hutchinson explained that the
battle area was the most richly fer.
tilted soil in the world, and that the
surgeons found in the wounds all the
contents of this fertilization. including
the tetanus bacillus and the gas gan.
creme bacillus. He thinks of all thu
medical services he has seen the Brit.
ish is incomparably the best He de-
clares that it will take years for thu
Americans to bring their organization
up to SO high level OF thoroughnes.
and success.
Growth outstrips That Of Germany,
DIR. Hutchinson says that whereas tn,
death rate in Germany is outrunning tn,
birth rate, the death rate in Englant
is less than the birth rate. This condi
ton he attributes to the extremely goo,
health of the armies in the field and t,
the great prosperity of the masses o
W. hhns people in England. He say
that public health in this country 4
L. - 'eoEed after with greater car,
ar far r:oTe effectualiy than ever be
10 = lie points out that last year tn,
doth rate in England was the loves