10
THE CADUCEUS
DISEASE THROTTLED
THE
BIG GASTON
COUNTY
FAIR!
Gastonia
October 8-12
Come and see it and en
joy yourself, besides learn-
ing something about this
good country of ours.
And then come on down
town and get a first class
DINNER
and make yourself at home
at the
Armin^toii Hotel
A Soldier always finds a
hearty welcome at
this hotel.
Crown W. WilNon, Miip.
OTTOWAY
THEATRE
The only theatre in the
city presenting the
latest
Fairbanks and
Hart
PICTURES
Also latest
Pathe News
weeklies and
Allies Official
War Review
COME TO SEE US
DEATH RATE ONLY TWO IN A
THOUSAND, REPORT SHOWS.
(Special to The- Caduceus.)
Washington, D. C., Sept. 27.-—“What
kind of treatment are we going to
get if we get sick on the other side?
Or get hit?”
Questions of this nature have been
voiced thousands of times in all camps
during the past year. A high official
of the army medical department was
asked during the week by a repre
sentative of the Caduceus .to answer
them. The substance of his reply,
though he asked not to be quoted, fol
lows:
Ample hospital facilities, that is,
beds, drugs and~surgical supplies, have
been provided to meet any and every
emergency overseas.
Also, there is sufficient personnel,
medical officers, enlisted men and
members of the army nurse corps in
France efficiently to run the hospital
system of the American expeditionary
forces.
There is a fixed and safe ratio of
beds to number of men, which is be
ing constantly maintained.
Ninety per cent of all wounds have
had a primary union, which means
that due to the speed of handling the
wounded and the sanitary precautions,
infection has had just one chance in
ten of getting'a foot-hold. This rec
ord, however, can hardly be. maintain
ed during a heavy sustained drive.
As for sickness, the overseas forces
have established an almost unbeliev
ably record. By comparing it with the
sick rate of armies in most other
wars, this is clearly brought out. It
can safely be said that the American
army in this war has been and is the
healthiest in the world. Of course,
there is a reason: First, disease is
kept away from it by every sanitary
precaution and, second, what does
creep through those lines of defense
is fought off by strongly develops i
bodily resistance.
If figures are needed to make the
foregoing more convincing, a very re
cent statement from the surgeon gen
eral’s office points out that for the
two months ended August 31, the com
bined reports of the American expe
ditionary forces and all troops sta
tioned in the United States shows an
annual death rate from disease of 2.18
per thousand—a fraction more than
two men per thousand per year. In
comparison with this, the annual
death rate for disease of men of mil
itary age in civil life is 6.7 per thou
sand.
Moreover, the combined reports
show that generally the health,of the
soldiers overseas is better than that
of the men in training in this coun
try. This is due for the most part
to the fact that only men in the
best physical condition are being sent
to France.
Here are some figures of American
losses from disease during past wars.
These complete the story. During the
Mexican war, the annual death rate
was 100 per 1,000. During the .Civil
war, 1862, it was 40 per 1,000 and in
1863, it jumped to 60 per thousand.
In the Spanish-American war, it was
25 per 1,000. Today it is a little more
than two per thousand.
The chief of the medical officers,
who have made this record possible,
is Surgeon General William Crawford
Gorges ,one of the greatest medical or
ganizers in the world’s history, and a
sanitary expert second to none. The
country has felt safe with him in
the role of the army’s family doc
tor.
Only recently he arrived in France,
having accompanied Secretary of War
Baker there, and is now inspecting our
efficient and adequate medical organ
ization overseas.
It was this same General Gorges
who helped build the Panama canal
by ridding the Zone of yellow fever;
also the same man who cleaned up
Havana when the Americans occu
pied that city; and none other than
the one England borrowed from our
war department in order to make the
mining districts of Africa healthy spots
in which to work. He has been called
an unconquered warrior, because dis
ease and epidemics have invariably
broken down before his attack.
To keep. a capable, keenly alive,
army medical department overseas,
there is an easily functioning and ef
ficient medical organization in this
country. There is a complete base
hospital in each of the large camps
and cantonments and a chain of gen
eral hospitals stretching from coast
to coast. The men in training, sec
ond in Importance only to those on
the firing line, are being kept healthy.
There is no better means of grasp
ing the present scope of the medical
department than by comparing its or
ganization when war came and today.
A year and a half ago, the department
numbered about 452 regular medical
officers, 900 nurses and 7,000 hospital
corps men. At the present time, more
than 25,000 doctors are in uniform,
many thousands in France and Eng
land and the remainder in this coun
try. The enlisted personnel of the de
partment now is in the neighborhood
of 200,000 and there are more than
16,000 trained nurses in active service
as members of the army nurse corps.
It is this force of men and women
whose duty it is to keep the army
wdli and at the top point of fighting
efficiency. And they are doing their
duty. From the stretcher-bearer be
tween the lines bringing. help to, a
wounded Yank, all the way to the
ward master in a hospital back home,
outlines the job of the enlisted man of
the department. It is. the task of the
medical officers to direct this army of
health.
From the time a man is hit or taken
sick, until he is returned to his unit
as an effective ready to fight and work,
or until he is sent home to be re-edu
cated for future usefulness and self-
support, he is wholly under the pro
tecting wing of the army medical de
partment.
Those wings are today stretching
from the St. Mihlel line in France to
our Pacific seaboard and they are
capable of supporting every load.