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THE PRIVY COUNCIL MEDICAL REPORT.
263
I Disease; consumption
sick should always be dispersed in several villages, and not retained in one. The greatest danger, he declared, is foul I air, which can never be compensated for by diet or medicine. The Germans have of late years been introducing a system of 11 baracke," or roof-ventilated hut, for the treatment of severe surgical cases, and experience has shown that pyæmia and hospital gangrene can be better prevented in them than in solid buildings. These will, no doubt, be largely utilised during the present war. The ventilation of the " baracke" at the Charite hospital of Berlin, is described by Esse. It is a system of aspiration. The air is drawn in by a space under the floor, and passes into the ward through the stove. In summer time the air enters by windows, and passes out I by a lantern on the roof. The Prussian experience of the hos- I pital structures used by the Americans in their war was un- I favourable. The wards in the climate of Germany were too hot in summer, and too cold in winter; but the "baracke" does very well for both surgical and medical cases. It may be remarked, in passing, that cases of typhoid fever treated in these wards gave a larger number of recoveries, but the convalescence was more prolonged than when the patients were treated in hospitals of more solid charaeter. The secondary affections of gunshot wounds have yet to make their appearance, and the military surgeons that were to proceed from this country will have an opportunity of studying these, as they probably will now miss the opportunity of witnessing the working organisation of the German and French medical and ambulance services. We shall be very anxious to ascertain the opinions of surgeons on the relative merits of amputation and resection in military surgery, for at present the evidence on this subject is very conflicting.
and that by Dr. Thorne on the effects produced by the of the milk yielded by animals suffering from foot-and-mouth disease. The report on Animal Vaccination by Dr. Seaton is, ms the very name of its author would ensure, a most complete and careful document. For the sake of the many and manifest advantages that would seem likely to accrue from. the system, we regret to record that Dr. Seaton’s testimony is entirely condemnatory of its employment. He finds that the degree of success attending the practice of animal vaccinatioa is low, and such as to constitute a serious drambaak to its use; while much training and practice are required before even that low degree of success can be secured. He therefore believes that its general introduction could not fail to cause the presence in the community of a large andconstantly increasing number of unprotected or imperfectly protected persons, and thus to become a source of extensive and fatal epidemics of small-pox. In the face of this conclusion, it is the more gratifying to state that the general work of vaccination in Englandis steadily extending and improving, that the arrangements for local lymph supply are rapidly being perfected, and the awards paid by the Privy Council to meritorious public vaccinators, in addition to their contract fees, amounted during the year to very nearly four thousand pounds. I& is also stated by Mr. Simon, as an illustration of the improving quality of public vaccination, that the first-class gratuities in 1868-9 formed 60 per cent. of the whole number given, as against 33 per cent. in the year iminediately
preceding. SOCIETY FOR AID TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN WAR.
WE feel assured that everybody must wish this Society every success in its efforts to relieve the sufferings and assuage the misery of the wounded during the present calamitous war..The Society belongs to no country or party. It joins in the battle of humanity, and endeavours THE PRIVY COUNCIL MEDICAL REPORT. to mitigate the horrors of war, and it ought to command the sympathies of all, especially of those who, like the inTHE Twelfth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy habitants of this country, are spared the mournful sights Council, which, with its Appendix, will be issued to the and sorrows by which other lands are afflicted. Spite of the public in a few days, will fully maintain the great interest exultation that attends on success, how many German and importance of the remarkable series of volumes of homes are desolate, and how many German soidiers are at which it forms part. Mr. Simon’s account of his steward- this moment tortured with pain. In France, on the other ship is on this occasion divided into six heads: the first re- hand, there is nothing to diminish the sorrow, misery,, and lating to the special diseases of the year; the second to the disappointment which reach from the Empress to the sanitary wants of the population; the third to public vacci- poorest peasant. A public meeting of the general committee of this nation ; the fourth to the practice of pharmacy; the fifth to the question of medical reform; and the sixth to the sci- Society was held on the 4th inst., and resolutions have since entific investigations conducted by the Department. It is been passed by the central committee to the following probable that at least five of these subjects will require effect :-That Mr. Prescott Hewett, Dr. A. J. Pollock, and special notice in our columns ; but, as regards medical re- Surgeon-Major Bostock, form a sub-committee for the liurform, we congratulate ourselves upon being somewhat in pose of selecting six surgeons or dressers, in every way advance of the Privy Council, and we shall hardly retrace qualified, to serve as a detachment from this Society with. our steps to examine its work. the French and Prussian Society of Help for the Sick and We gather from the general tone of Mr. Simon’s Report Wounded in War; that the surgeons be at once sent to the that he looks hopefully to the near future for some compre- seat of war to the French and Prussian societies; that the hensive measure of sanitary legislation, and that he seeks first contribution of e500 be sent to the national societies to impress anew upon the public mind, both by the state- through the British Ambassadors in Paris and Berlin ; !Ms& ment of fresh facts and arguments and by the repetition of that Captain Galton, C.B., be requested to consider the old ones, some of the most cardinal points that should be possibility of finding a store to be used as the Society’s secured by any useful measure. depot for such articles for the use of the sick and wounded Among the Reports contained in the Appendix we may as may be contributed by the public. mention those by Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Netten Radcliffe The surgeons and some dressers have already left. Ours on various methods of dealing with excrement; that by Mr. is a profession which must perforce be familiar with what Netten Radcliffe on the Turbidity of the Water supplied by sufferings of the wounded are likely to be. We have certain of the London Companies; the statistics of the great pleasure in giving publicity to the above resolutions; if we can in the meantime aid the central committee in National Vaccine Establishment, and the Report by Dr. Seaton on Animal Vaccination as practised on the Conti- their humane efforts, by receiving any subscriptions or nent ; the Report by Dr. Burdon-Sanderson on Contagion ; matériel for the use of the sick, we shall be gl&d to do so that by Dr. Thudichum on the Chemical Identification of office of THE LANCET.
the
and the
I Disease; consumption
sick should always be dispersed in several villages, and not retained in one. The greatest danger, he declared, is foul I air, which can never be compensated for by diet or medicine. The Germans have of late years been introducing a system of 11 baracke," or roof-ventilated hut, for the treatment of severe surgical cases, and experience has shown that pyæmia and hospital gangrene can be better prevented in them than in solid buildings. These will, no doubt, be largely utilised during the present war. The ventilation of the " baracke" at the Charite hospital of Berlin, is described by Esse. It is a system of aspiration. The air is drawn in by a space under the floor, and passes into the ward through the stove. In summer time the air enters by windows, and passes out I by a lantern on the roof. The Prussian experience of the hos- I pital structures used by the Americans in their war was un- I favourable. The wards in the climate of Germany were too hot in summer, and too cold in winter; but the "baracke" does very well for both surgical and medical cases. It may be remarked, in passing, that cases of typhoid fever treated in these wards gave a larger number of recoveries, but the convalescence was more prolonged than when the patients were treated in hospitals of more solid charaeter. The secondary affections of gunshot wounds have yet to make their appearance, and the military surgeons that were to proceed from this country will have an opportunity of studying these, as they probably will now miss the opportunity of witnessing the working organisation of the German and French medical and ambulance services. We shall be very anxious to ascertain the opinions of surgeons on the relative merits of amputation and resection in military surgery, for at present the evidence on this subject is very conflicting.
and that by Dr. Thorne on the effects produced by the of the milk yielded by animals suffering from foot-and-mouth disease. The report on Animal Vaccination by Dr. Seaton is, ms the very name of its author would ensure, a most complete and careful document. For the sake of the many and manifest advantages that would seem likely to accrue from. the system, we regret to record that Dr. Seaton’s testimony is entirely condemnatory of its employment. He finds that the degree of success attending the practice of animal vaccinatioa is low, and such as to constitute a serious drambaak to its use; while much training and practice are required before even that low degree of success can be secured. He therefore believes that its general introduction could not fail to cause the presence in the community of a large andconstantly increasing number of unprotected or imperfectly protected persons, and thus to become a source of extensive and fatal epidemics of small-pox. In the face of this conclusion, it is the more gratifying to state that the general work of vaccination in Englandis steadily extending and improving, that the arrangements for local lymph supply are rapidly being perfected, and the awards paid by the Privy Council to meritorious public vaccinators, in addition to their contract fees, amounted during the year to very nearly four thousand pounds. I& is also stated by Mr. Simon, as an illustration of the improving quality of public vaccination, that the first-class gratuities in 1868-9 formed 60 per cent. of the whole number given, as against 33 per cent. in the year iminediately
preceding. SOCIETY FOR AID TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN WAR.
WE feel assured that everybody must wish this Society every success in its efforts to relieve the sufferings and assuage the misery of the wounded during the present calamitous war..The Society belongs to no country or party. It joins in the battle of humanity, and endeavours THE PRIVY COUNCIL MEDICAL REPORT. to mitigate the horrors of war, and it ought to command the sympathies of all, especially of those who, like the inTHE Twelfth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy habitants of this country, are spared the mournful sights Council, which, with its Appendix, will be issued to the and sorrows by which other lands are afflicted. Spite of the public in a few days, will fully maintain the great interest exultation that attends on success, how many German and importance of the remarkable series of volumes of homes are desolate, and how many German soidiers are at which it forms part. Mr. Simon’s account of his steward- this moment tortured with pain. In France, on the other ship is on this occasion divided into six heads: the first re- hand, there is nothing to diminish the sorrow, misery,, and lating to the special diseases of the year; the second to the disappointment which reach from the Empress to the sanitary wants of the population; the third to public vacci- poorest peasant. A public meeting of the general committee of this nation ; the fourth to the practice of pharmacy; the fifth to the question of medical reform; and the sixth to the sci- Society was held on the 4th inst., and resolutions have since entific investigations conducted by the Department. It is been passed by the central committee to the following probable that at least five of these subjects will require effect :-That Mr. Prescott Hewett, Dr. A. J. Pollock, and special notice in our columns ; but, as regards medical re- Surgeon-Major Bostock, form a sub-committee for the liurform, we congratulate ourselves upon being somewhat in pose of selecting six surgeons or dressers, in every way advance of the Privy Council, and we shall hardly retrace qualified, to serve as a detachment from this Society with. our steps to examine its work. the French and Prussian Society of Help for the Sick and We gather from the general tone of Mr. Simon’s Report Wounded in War; that the surgeons be at once sent to the that he looks hopefully to the near future for some compre- seat of war to the French and Prussian societies; that the hensive measure of sanitary legislation, and that he seeks first contribution of e500 be sent to the national societies to impress anew upon the public mind, both by the state- through the British Ambassadors in Paris and Berlin ; !Ms& ment of fresh facts and arguments and by the repetition of that Captain Galton, C.B., be requested to consider the old ones, some of the most cardinal points that should be possibility of finding a store to be used as the Society’s secured by any useful measure. depot for such articles for the use of the sick and wounded Among the Reports contained in the Appendix we may as may be contributed by the public. mention those by Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Netten Radcliffe The surgeons and some dressers have already left. Ours on various methods of dealing with excrement; that by Mr. is a profession which must perforce be familiar with what Netten Radcliffe on the Turbidity of the Water supplied by sufferings of the wounded are likely to be. We have certain of the London Companies; the statistics of the great pleasure in giving publicity to the above resolutions; if we can in the meantime aid the central committee in National Vaccine Establishment, and the Report by Dr. Seaton on Animal Vaccination as practised on the Conti- their humane efforts, by receiving any subscriptions or nent ; the Report by Dr. Burdon-Sanderson on Contagion ; matériel for the use of the sick, we shall be gl&d to do so that by Dr. Thudichum on the Chemical Identification of office of THE LANCET.
the
and the