The Seward gateway daily edition, and the Alaska weekly post., 1918-03-05


 ent war, with over 3,000,000 men and in a country much more productive of typhoid infection, they had only 292 leathsl About one to every 10000 men. Thousands of our soldiers, in- stead of dying of disease, will come out of the army better men physically than they were when they entered it. 1t is sate to say that more lives will be saved by preventative medicine and modern sanitation than will be lost in actual fighting. People at home should know this.
 There has been great progress in surgery in the last fifty years, and there is no finer surgery in the world today than that which is being done for our soldiers.
 "In the Civil War if a man had a badly injured arm, they cut it off. If he had a serious knee wound or a shattered bone in the leg, they chop ped oE his leg. If he had bad head wound they could not very well de- capitate him, so he generally died; not necessarily from the injury itself but from the septic poisoning which followed it.
 "Antiseptic methods are the foun- dation on which the entire fabric of modern surgery rests. Early care of the wounded is the first thought of our surgeons. Save every life pos >ible is the watchword. Exrert sur gical attention is brought as close to the fighting line as possible, and every soldier has his lrst-aid Kit, and Il not too badly wounded he can paint the skin around the wound and apply sim pie aEtiseptic dressings.
 "In the early stages of the war many men on the western font died of tetanus Qockjaw) following wound. The soil of France was full of teLanus germs. An anti-tetanus serum was developed, and now every wounded man in France is inoculated with this serum as a precautionary measure, and the danger of tetanus has practically disappeared.
 There is another field in which we gre avoiding some of the most dis dressing by-products of war. We are trying to keep out of the fighting ranks the men who are mentally unfit 10 be there. It is worse than useless to send men to the trenches who are mentally unit to be there. It is worse than useless to send men to the Jren- chcs who will probably go insane if placed there. We have had many trained experts wedding out these men from the recruits. This is a precau- ton which has never before oeen talk cn, and is one of the most humane features in the mobilization of o'W forces.
 Before the war there were only 452 medical officers in our army. Six months later there were about l7000, and several thousand more under com mission.
 Enemy propagandists have spread abroad the report that the French. troops are ravaged by Uubercui 'siS. The truth is that there is less tuber- culosis in the French army tran there was among the French people before the war.
 "When the French soldiers were mobilized in 1914, they had been sleep ing, as was the custom in France, with closed windows, working in clos ed shops and offices, where fresh air was a thing to be afraid of. They never took outdoor exercise. The re. suit was that some of them were tu- belcuIar. Life in the open, plenty of exercise, regularity in eating, and wholesome food have improved thci' health in this respect, as in others.
 We may feel confident that in this war o,u soldiers will have better care, and if wounded, better treatment than has ever before been accorded to rlen called to defend their country and give their lives # necessary to uphold righteousness and justice"
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