Observations in the military hospitals of Dresden / by Alexander Bruce.

  • Bruce, Alexander, 1842?-1869.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations in the military hospitals of Dresden / by Alexander Bruce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and not sufficiently around him, a very unhygien- ic condition was produced, which resulted in a serious outbreak of pyaemia and erysipelas. In the many small rooms adjacent to the large hall the beds were often placed at somewhat greater distances from one another, two and a half or even three feet being allowed; but as these rooms had but one row of windows, the air was general- ly not so good as in the large hall. I may mention here, that the “Turn Halle,” or gymnastic halls, to be met with in every German town, afforded excellent hospital accom- modation, as they are generally spacious, and better ventilated than any other buildings in Germany. I visited a temporary hospital in the “Turn Halle” at Leipzig: the beds were very close together, and there were at least five rows of them on the ground-floor, and another row in the gallery all round the room ; yet the air was as fresh as could have been wished, the windows being large and numerous on opposite sides of the room. That this overcrowding in the case of gunshot injuries, where excessive suppuration necessarily ensues, is productive of fearful evils, cannot be doubted ; and I think the authorities would have done well to have disregarded a few hours more railway travelling, and have distributed the slighter cases throughout the towns of North Germany, and have thus relieved the hospitals nearer the seat of war. An attempt was made to institute a tent hospital or “zeltstation” in con- nexion with the garrison hospital. I was inform- ed by one of the medical officers connected with it that it did not answer as well as was expected;