Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-01-07
Medical Marvels of War
New York Times.

"The war has taught us how to save more
lives than the war has cost"
This is statement made by Mai. George A.
Stewart of the War Demonstration hospital OF
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
who believes that out of the agony and suffer
ing of the recent great struggle will come bene-
fits to humanity that will compensate to large
extent for the lives that were lost and the blood
that was shed Medicine and surgery have tax
en- giant strides during the more than four
years of the war, and the pressing necessity
born through the worlds travail has, in the es-
tmation of jor Stewart, developed medical
science to such an extent that mankind will be
gamer rather than loser in the years to
come
THE countless improvements of practice,
both in medicine and surgery, made in this war
have advanced our science half a century i'll
four years." says Major Stewart, "In surgery,
the values and technique of 'chlorination'-or the
use of some combination of chlorine for the de-
struction of malignant germs which gave rise to
pus-have been learned as never before. There
is no longer any good excuse Tor persistence of
puS.
The development of the 'Carrel- Dakin'
method of treating all manner of infected
wounds by periodic irrigation with Dakin fluid
"a noncaustic hypoehl'orite) marked an extra
ordinary advance, And in this the method is as
important as the fluid 1t is being taught to
surgeons the world over.
"Out of As patients in the War Demonstra-
ton hospital suffering from empyema we re-
turned IS to the front Empyema is pus in the
chest cavity. 1t often follows penumonia and
hitherto has been highly fatal There has been
an unusual amount of empyema in New York
this year of very serious type. But the death
rate has been 1essened by the modern treatment
"Other wonderful advances have been made.
for example, in X-ray work. in knowledge of
the gas bacillus which causes a form of gam
creme, in the serum treatment for prevention
of cure of such diseases as typhoid fever lock-
jaw, pneumonia. meningitis, etc These les
sons will save far more lives in the long run
than the war has cost"
Nor is Major Stewart the only man of re-
pute to hold such views Josephus Daniels, Sec
rotary of the navy, also believes that innumer-
able blessings will arise from the lessons that
have been taught by stern necessity in time of
storm and stress.
I Zone of the compensations for the tragedy
of the war" he said recently, lis the fact that
an enlightened opinion is behind the organized
campaign to protect the youth against con-
tagious disease
"The campaign begun in war to insure the
military fitness of men for fighting is quite as
necessary to save men for civil efficiency"
Sir Almroth Wright, in The London Lancet,
the most famous medical journal in the world,
says that "the Carrel-Dakin method (of treat
ing infected wounds) is far the most important
contribution to surgical technique since the
beginning of the war"
But this is only one of countless other
epochmakng methods that have arisen tri-
umphant over the blood and brutality of the
boche. There is the famous ambrine treatment
for burns that was so successfully administered
in the Ambrne hospital for the French wound
ed at Compiegne by Miss Elsie de Wolfe and
other nurses treatment that proved god
send for agonized pous suffering from fam
menwerfer wounds. Nor should one forget
the marvellous anaesthetic discovered by Cor
don Edwards, young American humanitarian,
which could be sprayed upon gaping raw
wounds and burns, relieving the exquisite
agony of the patient and enabling physicians to
apply and remove bandages without the wound
ed man feeling the slightest pain.
Before this war the doctors didn't know
much about the habits and habitats of that pest,
since the first crack of dawn. But the war
gave this creature another name, and it wasn't
long before all the world was talking of the
"coote," which became the familiar of the SOL
der in the trench and helped make war even
more like Sherman said it was. The "coote,"
at first taken somewhat as joke, became SER
ious menace, for physicians discovered that he
was the greatest little disease carrier on earth,
compared with which the New Jersey mosquito
was as nothing. 1t is now generally admitted
that the "cootie" transmitted more disease dur
ing the war than any other single agency. But
now the doctors know all that is to be known
about this pest, and have learned to muzzle the
"cootie," so to speak
Disease in time of war has always caused
more deaths than shot and she'll This was the
case during the brief Spanish war,
and history has repeated itself during the war
that has just ended. In this connection it is in
teresting to record the established fact that the
total death roll of the United States forces in
the war was just about one-half of the toll ex-
acted of us by the recent epidemic of Spanish
influenza. Nor should it be overlooked that. in
times of peace, the deaths annually from indus
trial accidents in this country are estimated to
where the patient is not killed, he or she
energies from the hospital hopeless cripple,
But the new surgery the surgery developed
during the war, will not only save many Of
these industrial victims, but will help to restore
to usefulness the lame and the halt and the
blind
In hospital in Milan. Italy, they have been
experimenting successfully with new appara-
tus which insures immobility of the mouth and
jaws, and thus makes it possible for the phv-
stefan to rebuild reshape and even to actually
restore, lost functions to men who were suffer
ing from mouth wounds This marvellous jaw
lock consists of two light metal arches, one of
which is placed on the outside of the lower
range of teeth and the other on the upper range.
the whole being fastened to the teeth by metal
gaments in such fashion that no movement of
the mouth cans distract the physician at work.
And while the work goes on. the patient is fed
by means of liquid food inserted between the
nterstices of the teeth. BY means of this con-
trivance the wonder worker in surgery can
practically make human face.
Connected with this ANA 1no hoco;tot in