First aid
First aid kits and training were introduced at the instigation of Charles Dickson of the Canadian St. John Ambulance Association and backed by many railway surgeons. One railway surgeon reported that his fatality rate following amputation more than halved after first aid was introduced. There was some opposition to first aid through fear that it eroded the professional status of doctors and that local contract railway surgeons would lose the fees they would otherwise have accrued for the work. However, by World War I first aid kits on trains had become widespread.