Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1917 — MEDICAL ARMY BEING MOBOLIZED FOR WAR SERVICE [ARTICLE]

MEDICAL ARMY BEING MOBOLIZED FOR WAR SERVICE

Washington—Modern warfare, as well as the warfare of tiie future, demands the service of specialists, not only along the tiring line to operate the great guns, but back of it, step by step, in the opinion of Dr. F. F. Simpson. chief of the medical section of the Council of National Defense. The medical. section,---under-the direction of Doctor Simpson, is engaged on the gigantic work of• organizing the medical resources of the country into an efficient working unit, as .•one of the most—important features of military preparedness. Broadly, the scheme contemplates the creation of a medical reserve corps of 20,000 surgeons, physicians and spedUillktk ln~all- lines, who will be available for service in the army andnavy and civilian population in time of need. In addition to this, the organization will conduct a mobilization of the country's civilian medical resources, factories making medical supplies, hospitals for the care of the ill and wounded and schools for the re-education of those whose injuries on the battlefield make them unfit for the life work they had undertaken. The mobilization of the medical resources of the country is only a part of the great work which is being undertaken by the Council of National Defense, working in connection with the advisory commission to the Council of National Defense, The_cauncll proper is composed of members of the cabinet; the advisory comtrifsslon is composed of civilians who ,are recognized leaders in certain lines, and the chairman is Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad company, whose special attention is devoted to the transportation problems that would face the United States in time of war. Dr. Franklin Martin of Chicago is the chairman of the advisory commission which is dealing directly with the question of medicine as related to war. Began Organizing a Year Ago. Each of the divisions represented by the members of the advisory commission has a specific section, a sort of department, directed to carry out its particular work. Doctor Simpson is the chief of the medical section and, la working with what is known as the inwllcilUadvisofy visory commission. The members are: Doctor Martin, chairina_nj__SurgeQn

General William C. Gorgas of the army, Surgeon General William C. Braisted of the navy, Surgeon General Rupert Blue of the United States pubU lie health service, Col. Jefferson R. Kean, director general of military relief of the American Red Cross; Dr. William 11. Welch of Johns Hopkins university. Dr. W. J. Mayo of Rochester. Minn., and Doctor Simpson. Tins’, organization is co-operating With the committee of American physicians for American preparedness, of which Doctor Mayo is chairman and Doctor Simpson is secretary. Tills committee represents, direetly_Qr_iudfc: rectly, approximately 9U,000 “members of the medical profession of the United States and was organized_miire_JthatL_a year ago as a great patriotic movement for the conservation of life in time of war. Doctor Simpson, with a staff in ids office in Washington, just now is engaged in organizing a medical reserve corps, which will number 20,000 of the foremost surgeons, physicians and other specialists- in the country. This 1$ being accomplished through the creation of a committee of nine medical leaders in every state, who will have direct charge of formulating country .organizations. All physicians are being classified according to the work that they do best. Surgeons who are especially proficient, in abdominal operations are listed as such; ear, eye, nose "and throat specialists all go in one list; dentists—in fact, every branch of the medical profession is dissected and classified, so as to be on hand for particular, special, work when the time of need arrives. Proper Sanitat|pn Important. One of the important questions being considered is that of sanitation, and all medical men who are students of this work will be listed as such. Proper sanitation “tn the mobilization of any army will save thousands of lives, as ■ls demonstrated by a very recent example. In 1898, at the outbreak of the Span-ish-American war, when approximately 105,000 troops were mobilized for

Council of Internal Defense Builds System Based on Experience in European War.

PARTOFPREPAREDNESS WORK

Reserve Corps of 20,000 Surgeons, Physicians a,nd Specialists Being Organized—Civilian Medical Resources Also Mobilized.

service, - there" developed In the various camps 20,700 cases of fypfioidTeve?. deaths. Last when 146,000—almost twici' as many - troops were mobilize’iTfbr service along the Mexican border, only 14 eases of typhoid fever developed. The circumstances, in a general way, were similar. Men were taken from a temperate climate to a warmer climate and were assembled in large camps. The remarkable decrease in the number of cases of typhoid fever was due to nothing more nor less than the adoption of proper methods of sanitation. The medical corps of the army saw the mistakes of the Spanish-Amer-ican war and profited by them. It is for the further development of such improved methods that the medical section is now striving. Lessons From European" War In this connection object lessons are being derived daily from__the_ war in "Europe. Hundreds of reports are being received from medical officers, mostly Americans, who are at the battle fronts and in hospitals, as ipernbers of the American ambulance corps and with various Red Cross units. These refer to the new ways of handling the ill and wounded, the treatment of wounds on the battle fields and in hospitals. Ail of these suggestions are being tabulated for use in the future. Out of them the committee hopes to develop a thoroughly up-to-date ( jsystem for the United States. For example, one of the suggestions which is regarded as highly practical is that for conveying wounded soldiers backTrom The battlelines to far dlstaut hospitals without removing them from the stretchers on which they first are placed. This is accomplished Ky an interchange of stretchers, a very

simple method which ngver had been put in operation before. In this way the strength of the patient, an important factor for the assistance of hia recovery, is conserved, When a soldier is placed on a stretcher at the battle line he is carried to a waiting ambulance. The ambulance, in turn, receiving Jhe patient, does not place him on one of its own stretchers, but gives a stretcher to the men who have carried the man. If the ambulance drives to a hospital train, which is the general custom where the railroad lines are intact almost to the trenches, the train gives the ambulance justretcher, accepting at the same time the man and the stretcher on which he is being carried. This system works througlioutthe system oftransportation, so that a British soldier arriving In London, perhaps on the same day he 18 wounded, arrives on thesame stretcher that was at the battle front It also is the alm of the commission to work out a system of modern hospital trains, carrying wounded soldiers as far from the battle front as possible, out of the way of the operations and to a place where his recovery is most likely. Delicate operations cannot always be conducted on these trains, but it is possible to do certain things which are important in saving a man’s life, such as sfopping the flow of blood from a broken artery, the amputation of an arm or leg or the like. __ To Learn Full Medical Resources. When the commission obtains a full list of medical officers throughout the country they will be asked to supply elaborate statistics on the medical”resources of the various states, hospitals, schools for the re-education of wounded soldiers, and factories equipped to manufacture medical supplies. The question of finding schools is one of the great considerations. Men who have been blinded will be taught to become self-sustaining at some new line of work; men without arms will be instructed in some line of endeavor which requires no arms; each case will be taken up and worked out in itself, in a general effort to reduce to a minimum the number of hopelessly crippled men as the result of war. Arrangements also are being made to -effect- a-standardization—of - medical, supplies. Companies manufacturing certain types ofTnedicineS," surgical" instruments, splints, bandages■ and slmilar lliings-nsedlmnedtCHiWOrkWill be invited to send samples to the commission, to be placed on exhibition in Washington, From these will be developed thfr best practical appliances; and the various companies will be informed on what will be the needs in time of war.

Medical Give Aid. Almost all of the medical supply manufacturers of the country, when the proposal first was being considered, wrote to Washington expressing a willingness to co-operate in any scheme which seemed practical. Such a systemwimiot Only effect a standardization but will permit the commission, with full facts at hand.Jto regulate the supply in all linear so that there will not be a surplus of sftaetchers, a surplus of a certain type of surgical apparatus or anything else. Medical colleges all over the country are co-operating in the work, and most of them —about fifty, to be exact —have instituted a course of military surgery for their senior year. Army and—navy—medical- instructors have been assigned to these schools, and give -lectures on the most approved methods of handling theTU and wounded on the battlefield and in hospitals. The instruction was undertaken recently, after a conference between the deans of the schools and the members of the commission, at the invitation of Newton D. Baker, secretary of war. “The care of wounded men Is one of the most important questions to be considered in time of war," says Doctor Simpson. “By proper treatment life can be conserved to a maximum degree—a fact which should appeal to all men in the medical profession* whether pacifists or not. “The commission is meeting with remarkable success in its work. Everywhere the medical profession has shown a willingness to do its part in the nation’s preparedness. “What we- are, striving to do is to find the specialists who are needed for that conservation of life. We want to find the groove in which each man fits best, anti place him in it when necessary.”