The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-03-12
NOTHING NEW
is DISCOVERED
Since War Began, No Medical lnven
ton of Great Importance has
been Found, it is
Said.

LONDON, Jan. 17.-(By mail)-
Not single medical discovery OF
great Importance has been made
since the war began, nor has there
been a single great innovation in
surgical practice. Most people will
find this hard to believe, but DR..
Georg de Sweitochowski, of Kings
College hospital, the largest and most
modern hospital in the kingdom, says
it is SO.
1.-The war;" he said today, 'has
proved the value of many recent
medical discoveries and of advanced
methods of surgery, but it hasn't
taught us anything new. Not until
the untroubled times of peace will
we be able to draw from the war the
lessons it has to teach our profession.
Now everyone of us is too busy ap-
plying the knowledge acquired before
the war to undertake any patient re-
search"
This is true, he said, of the Ger
man medical men as well as the
British. The British have a month
by-month record of the work being
done in German hospitals and this
record reveals that the German ex-
perts have only been able to improve
hospital organization and ways of
utilizing knowledge already possessed
before the war, just as the British
have.
But medical science has proved
its value over and over again." said
the surgeon. Nearly all wars of the
past have ended not by mutual
slaughter, but by disease. Very few
wounded survived owing to INSULT
cient knowledge of wound treatment
and terrible epidemics sometimes ex-
terminated half or more of the re-
naming combatants. That can never
be said of this war, particularly of
the western front.
Ejaculation, vaccination and isola-
ton of contagious cases are saving
the worlds man power to remark
able degree. And the longer the war
lasts the less reason there is for
fearing that the great scourges of the
past will reassert themselves. SMALL
pox, typhoid, cholera and tetanus, for
the most dreaded plaques, are we'll
within our control.
"Wounds are now treated success
fully whose dimensions, situation and
condition would have baffled the
greatest operators of recent past.
Moreover the means employed nova
davs are of astonishing simplicity.
Absolute cleanliness, complete rest
and frequent irrigation Of wounds are
the principal things. Recovery after
a bullet In the heart, a shell frag
ment in the brain, machine gun
bullet through the neck, is common.
physicians have had new problems
in plenty, most important OF which,
perhaps. has been the effects Of mod
ern warfare on the human nervous
system. The indescribable force set
free by the latest types Of explosives
has proved to have an Injurious effect
on the nerves of all nat1onahtles. 1t
is remarkable that the more civilized
have been better able to
withstand it than the natives of semi
civilized countries.
"Various nerve complaints have
been met thus far that are yet to be
cleared up. Thus it is still an open
question whether some of them are
TO be regarded as the outcome of an
actual damage to the body or whether
they are the effect of the horrors of
war on the human mind. Cases of
cures are numerous.
"Tn the days Immediately following
of peace there will be op-
portunity for studying the results
achieved. The overwhelming material
offered by the war will be of incalcul-
able value to future medical and
surgical science
Figures compiled by the local Sc