On some forms of extemporaneous conveyances for sick and wounded in peace and war : read before the General Assembly of Members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England, June 24th, 1878 / by J.H. Porter.

Porter, Joshua Henry, -1880.

Date:: 1878

Credit: On some forms of extemporaneous conveyances for sick and wounded in peace and war : read before the General Assembly of Members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England, June 24th, 1878 / by J.H. Porter. 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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$first placing a thick bed of fern and straw on the floor beneath the mattress. A thick layer of loose straw, hay, or leaves has been used, but these were found defective materials for affording elasticity in long distances, as they become rapidly displaced from under the bodies of the patients, accumulating in heaps, and easily broken up and matted. We find, however, that after the battle of Olustee in 1864, where the wounded of the Union side numbered over 1,100 serious cases of compound fracture and of penetrating wounds of cavities, Assistant-Surgeon J. H. Janeway, U.S.A., states they were trans- ported on freight cars bedded with pine boughs, palmetto leaves, and a small allowance of straw, covered with blankets. The train moved slowly, making a journey of nearly 50 miles, and the patients, who had undergone amputation, and others severely injured, complained but little of the rough method of transit.* When straw or other inflammable materials are used, precautions should be taken against fire. The inventions of General Zavo- doosky, of St. Petersburgh, for preventing all shock from the motion of goods' waggons were described at the Annual General Meeting of the Order in 1876, and are published in the Eeport for the year, to which I would invite your attention. In the same Report is a method for adapting our second-class railway carriages for the reception of litters, which is simple, and might be found useful at railway accidents. The suspension of hammocks in railway vans appears to have been submitted to the Prussian Government in 1859 by Professor Gurlt, of Berlin; but it was found in practice, by his method, that the panels of vans would not sustain the weight of the loaded hammocks, and that the great swaying movement induced vertigo or led to collisions. It was, therefore, not approved of. Since then Dr. Davy, of Westminster Hospital, has been carrying invalids in hammocks suspended in railway vans, and with, I believe, satis- factory results. In trying his method with Messrs. SeydeFs twine hammocks on the London and South-Western Railway, I found there was considerable lateral motion or swing, but without any shock or jerk. The motion was not uncomfortable, but it might have at first caused some alarm to a nervous patient. To obviate the difficulties respecting the panels not sustaining the weight, as was found in Professor Guilt's method, I have introduced tempo- * A Eeport ou Plans for Transporting Wounded Soldiers by Railway in Time of$