Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-03-07

London, Jan. 17.--(By MaiD Not a
single medical discovery If guai inn
portance has been made sil.e the war
began, nor has there been a SINGLE great
innovation in surgical practice. Most
people will find this hard to believe, but
DIR. Georg de Sweitoehowski, of King s
College Hospital, the largest and most
modern hospital in the kingdom, says IT
is so.
'lThe war; he said today, has
proved the value of many recent medi-
cal discoveries and of advanced meth
DDS of surgery, but it hasn't taught US
ANYTHING new. Not until the untsoubied
times of peace VIII we be able to draw
from the war the lessons it has to teach
our prof sssion. Now everyone OF US IS
80 busy applying I'll knowledge ac-
al ired efcre the war 20 unaeefHte any
atient r,s, arch.
This is true, he said, Of the German
medical men as we'll as the British. The
British have month-by-month record
of the work being done in German hos
pitals and this record reveals that the
| German experts have only been able TO
improve hospital organization and ways
of utilizing knowledge already posses
sed before the war, just as the BRUSH
have.
"But medical science has proved It's
value over and over again, said tho
surgeon. "Nearly all wars of the past
have ended not by mutual slaughter, but
bv disease. Very few wounded survived
owing to insufficienI knowledge OF
wound treatment and terrible epidemics
sometimes exterminated half or more OF
the remaining combatants. Ihat can
never be said of this war, particularly
of the Western Front.
Innoculation, vaccination and lsola
tion of contagious cases are saving the
world s man power to a remarkable de-
GREE. And the longer the war lasts the
less reason there is for rearing that the
great scourges of the past will reasSef'
themselves. Smallpox, typhoid, cholera
and tetanus, for the most dreaded rla
cues, are well within our control.
"'Wounds are now treated success,
fully whose dimensions, situation ana
condition woul have baffled the gceat'
est operators of recent past. More
aver the means employed nowadays are
of astonishing simplicity. Absolute
cleanliness, complete rest and frequent
irrigation Of wounds arc the principal
things Recovery after |. bullet in nc
heart. a shell fragment in the BRAIN a
machine gun bullet through the neck, Is
common.
1 plysiciane have had Lew problems
in plenty, most important of which, per
! hans has been the effects of modern
/ warfare on the human nervous system
The indescribable force set free by the
latest types of explosives has provete.
an injurious effect on the nerves Oh al
nationalities. IT is remarkable that the
more civilized combatants have peer
better able to Withstand it than the
natives of semi-civilized countries.
Various nerve complaints have beer
met thus far that are yet to be cleared
M. Thus it is still an open question
whether some Of them are to be regard
ed as the outcome of an actual damage
to the body or whether they are the
! effect of the horrors Of war on the hu
man mind. Cases of miraculous cures arc
numerous.
lin the days Immediately following
conclusion of peace there will be oppor
ttnity for studying the results achieved
The overwhelming material offered by
the war will be of incalculable value tt
future medical and surgical science.