Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-10-01
THE DOCTOR IN ACTION
Modern Surgery and Medicine Has
Changed War Conditions.
NO LORGER IMMUNE FROM ATTACK

Because the Doctors Do 80 MUCH u
Keep Men Fit and to Put th'
Wounded Back On the Firing Lines
the Germans Have Ceased to Resars
Them as Non -combatants.
BY DR.. Woods Hutchison, a. NJ. NJ. d.
In Red Cross Magazine.
This war Is different from any othel
war in history and no one has helped
more to make II so than the doctors
No one who knows will either resen
or dispute the fact that in this wal
the forces whose aim is the protection
and recovery OF life have made more
progress and have been more success
full than those which aim at this de-
struction.
This seems rankly incredible in the
face OF the horribly efficient machines
for slaughter and diabolically ingen-
lious scientific engines Of destruction
which Il modern general has at MS
disposal-airplanes and hailstorms OF
half ton shells in the heavens above:
dynamite mines and concrete gun
nests in the earth beneath. batteries
l"thick in autumnal leaves in Eallom-
brosa," hurting a million shells a day,
and machine guns that pour streams
OF bullets like water from hose: and,
last but not least, the tiendish, strang-
ling. torturinS gas clouds, which are
neither from heaven above nor from
earth beneath. but direct from hell
the good old German hell-itself.
| II any one doubts II, here are the
cold, official figures. The total death
rate from all causes in this war, in
stead of being, as might pardonably
be expected, tenfold greater, IL less
than that Of any previous and con-
tinued war on record! That Is barely
> per cent per annum OF the total
number engaged. as compared with
more than 8 per cent In our American
Civil war, for instance.
The two chief factors in the tri-
umph have been the doctor and the
irrepressible and unconquerable re-
sourcefulness OF the common soldier.
The same human ingenuity which
sharpened the attack has hardened
the defense. Give man spade and
three hours start, and he will make
himself safe from the hugest cannon
ever yet cast. In spite Of the horrible
soul shaking thunder and roar OF
modern artillery, blasting and pound
ing down level the whole face Of the
earth like n huge paviour's rammer. II
actually takes more tons OF shell to
kill one soldier now than 1t used to
take hundred-weight Of bullets In an
earlier day.
But the doctor comes first an
diminisher Of the deadliness Of war,
because, in the first place, seven
eigths Of the danger in former wars
was from disease, not from battle. In
successive wars Of thirty years past,
we have been whiting this down
steadily to six sevenths, three
quarters, three fifths Tin the Japanese
army); but in this war we have reach
ed our climax in a death-rate from
disease less than one fifth as great as
that from battles and wounds-barely
a fraction of per cent. This Is the
greatest single contribution to the
lowering death-rate. And the reason
why it has not brought down the en-
tire death-rate in corresponding pro-
portion is because the fighting Is so
vastly more incessant and continuous
than in any previous war. Even In
socalled quiet times, there are more
men engaged along the whole length
of the Western Front in active fight
ing than ever were lined up In the
greatest and most famous battles OF
history, ignoring. of course. the pre-
posterous figures of the forces en-
gagged in the battle Of antiquity, which
are pure fairy tales. The British
army alone, as one OF It's officers ex-
pressed it, has been fighting an aver
age of something like Ave Waterloos
week."
The second great contribution Of the
doctor has been his brilliant success
in the treatment Of the wounded. In
earlier wars. from thirty to forty
(and If hospital sangrene broke out
sixty) per cent Of the wounded died.
In this war. of the wounded who are
able to be carried of the field Of bat
tie in zone piece" so to speak, 80 per
cent recover of those reaching the
casualty clearing stations and field
hospitals. IS per cent get well; while
| have visited base hospitals which
have treated tens OF thousands OF sue
cessive cases, with a death rate less
than ten per cent. or the wounded
who recover seventy to eighty per
cent are back again on the firing line
within forty days.
But by a curious paradox, the
very successes Of the doctor have In
creased both his dangers and his
hardships. First Of all because a
large share Of his wonderful success
In the treatment Of the wounded de-
pends upon his getting them within
eight hours, and II possible within
three or four, of the time
that they are hit. on to the operating
table of a fully equipped hospital,
with all modern conveniences and
facilities This means that>the real
works" of the surgical organization
of this war have moved up into the
field hospitals. called by the English
I"Casualty Clearing Stations" and by
the French and Americans, "Evacu-
alton Hospitals" because the wound
ed are evacuated from them into the
hospital trains which stand at their
back doors. Not merely are the regi-
mental surgeons in their posts just
behind the third line trenches and the
Ambulance doctors in the advance
dressing stations. but nearly half of
1.-THE operating and consulting surgeons
land their nurses and staff live and
work constantly under. or close to,
the range Of the heavier German guns
land are constantly exposed to night