The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-30
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN F 0 R M ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington. d. c.
THE MOVIES DO WAR WORK.

/ THE MOVIES DO WAR WORK.
Washington, D. c., July ga new |
! and unique moving picture concern |
| has recently been organized here. |
Some of the most important men in |
| the moving picture industry are work |
| ing as its camera men; the foremost |
American scientists are its stars, and |
| during the short period 1t has been
( in operation it has produced some of
| the most remarkable pictures ever reg
istered on film. 1t is known as
| ''GorgaS Film company"
The surgeon general has gone into
| the moving picture business, and the
whole army medical department has
gone in with him. With the help of
various officers and privates who
| formerly owned, operated and worked
for large moving picture companies.
| a moving picture plant has been in
! stalled in a building near the army
medical headquarters, government
film agency has been established, and
films at the rate of $500 feet a
week are being produced for the en-
| tertainment and education of the
army.
Before they are shipped to the can
Itonments. the films are tried out in a
| long. dark and badly ventilated room
that has all the atmosphere of a COM
mercial moving picture theater. Here
medical officers. the heads of govern
ment departm ents, congressional COM
mittees, and even the secretary of war,
occasionally drop in and ask TO see the
pictures.
| One Of these, which was being run
off the other day for the benefit of
| some visitors. showed an operation on
| a young private for the removal of a
| hernia In case you have never had
one, you may not n" W that a hernia
is a part of the intestines which has
| become looeened and projects thru
| ones inner lining in an annoying man.
ner, causing large lump to appear
on the smooth urface of the abdomen
| In is government film, which is of
the animated cartoon kind. you are
shown exactly how it happens. First,
| with a few broad strokes. the artist
| sketches an outline of the human
| form as it normally is. Next appears
a sketch of the interior, showing the
intestines, looking like coils of lead
| pipe, and intefsected by arteries and
| blood vessels. Immediately one of
these coils begins to slip out of place
| and drop down a couple of inches
the hernia has occurred. Then the in
testines fade out again. and the next
| picture shows you how the hernia
| looks on the outside.
Comes now the operation. knife
| suddenly floats into the picture and
| makes an incision about an inch above
the hernia, being careful to avoid the
main artery of thesintestines and the
larger blood vessels. The incision is
swathed with some sort of an anti
septic mixture by a hand that appears
in the right-hand corner of the pic
ture, while from all four corner ap
pear animated forcepS which Seize the
skin about the incision and hold it
firmly back Again the hand appears,
this time with a peculiar instrument,
resembling a nut-pick, with which the
recalcit4ant intestine is captured and
pushed back into place. The rest of
the operation is finished in a few sec
onds by = needle and thread which
float into the film and sew up the
inner lining and the outside skin. At
this point the real photograph of the
private undergoing this operation is
| flashed on the screen, showing him on
| the operating table. with the doctor
and nurse bending over him, and the
young man himself grinning and CIV
ing military salute.
The energetic condition of the pa
tient after this operation is accounted
for by the fact that it has been per-
formed with a local anesthetic and not
ether. Since the war, German patent
rights are not observed in this country,
, and American surgeons are now using
: the German local anesthetic, novo-
caine, with gratifying results. In the
middle of this operation. the young
private smiled at his nurse and said:
I wonder what the folks in Frisco
: are doing now"
; |
a comparatively simple one, the value
of such a picture showing a difficult
operation may readily be seen. Medi-
cal textbooks are very good in describ-
Ing the theory of an operation. but
they cannot show the exact technique
To the small town doctor, for exam
5 pie, moving picture of one of the
mayo brothers performing an opera
, ton for cancer would be ten times as
instructive as textbook setting forth
the theory of the thing
Indeed, according to the army medf-
5 cal corps, moving picture of an
operation is better than a sight of the
operation itself. since the retina of
: the eye cannot possibly retain the nu-
t merous Impressions photogra phed by
the camera; while the animated ca =
4 toon-whifAl eliminates all unneces-
sary detail and focuses the attention
on the important points-is the last
r word in medical instruction
+ The animated cartoonist' of the
G army me dical corps is Sergt. Paul
Terry, who formerly ran the ami
y mated Weekly and built the camera
for the Bray cartoons. When he first
U | entered the army he had no medica
knowledge whatsoever, but he attracted
the attention of the medical officers
t by the accurate sketches he was able
e 10 make of their operations. Col. Viii
| liam Owen, in charge of the army
movie plant under Surgeon-General
t Gorgas, believing that the young man
e possessed unusual ability, decided IL
:, | send him to Johns Hopkins university
to study under Max BrodeI. Now the
Terry surgical cartoons are one of the
n most important products of the army
Il medical corps, and so expert has the
artist become that he can place his
hand inside a wound and draw an ac-
e curate picture of its interior. In cases
q where a patient cannot be photo
graphed under x-ray. Terry is always
called into consultation.
II The "Gorgas Film Company" does
+ not confine itself to surgical films
&C. however. Many scenarios are writer
for the sole benefit of the soldier, an6
are teaching lessons that the fin.