The Nenana daily news., 1918-06-03
MEDICAL WAR PROBLEMS

MEDICAL WAR PROBLEMS
 What the war has done for med cine was described at length r gently by Dr. Samuel w. Lamber Dean of the College of Physician and Surgeons, Columbia Universit, Dr. Lambert showed how medicin has coped with the new problem presented by the congregation C large numbers of men in arm camps, and how the medical schoo have met the demand for physician and surgeons.
 "The great war has presented t the world new form of communit life," he said, with a new combina tion of the various elements whic] are to be found in every concentra tion of the populations of wester, countries.
 This war is unlike any prev;ou, war in that the old idea of tan- paigns with armies fighting and moving over large districts of erri- tory was true in Belgium and Fance only for the first few weeks If the conflict. Such a conception has been realized more in the distant battlefields of Asia and Eastern Rrope. The majority of the troops gaged on the West front have set ga down to permanent location ma have continued more or less lXed in position for three years @while they carry their daily aIid p nightly tasks of combat in what is known as trench warfare.
 Such a community has developed new medical problems and has eX- aggerated some older ones already we'll known to the army medical departments of all nations. The modern weapons with their high ex- plosives and rapid fire and the in- humanities of asphyxiating gases and liquid fire have produced surgical conditions which are extremely in- frequent as complications of the ac- cidents of civil life. The habit of continuous warfare also has com pelled the relief squads to delay their merciful tasks, and there re- suits high percentages of neglected infection and of the severer forms of blood poisoning and gangrene which modern aseptic surgery had eliminated from the experience of hospital practice.
 At the beginning of the war an appreciable number of the troops had not been protected by the mod ern methods of vaccination against typhoid. That disease, and more particularly closely allied condition, paratyphoid, were very prevalent. At the present time both diseases have been controlled to a large ex- tent by a full application of the methods which were developed and applied first in the army of the United States.
 "The war has necessitated the formulation of methods to control diseases communicated by water. This has been done, and dysentery, one of the oldest foes of armies, has been made less prevalent than in former wars. The present-day army physicians must do more on these lines, however. He must discover by quick action any contamination of wells and other supplies of drink ing water from the addition of dead animals, sewage and even of mineral; poisons, such as arsenic, whenver the Allies advance in the territory lately occupied by the modern Huns. "The war has emphasized the inn portance of the group of diseases which are trasmitted by the bite of vermin. One of these, known as spotted typhus,' is caused by the body louse, and is normally found in Southeastern Europe. It has been controlled by a rigid application of sanitary rules and by inoculation. Another disease of this group is