Volume 2

Reminiscences in the life of Surgeon-Major George A. Hutton / With an introduction by R. Lawton Roberts.

  • Hutton, George A. (George Allan), 1830-1919.
Date:
1907-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reminiscences in the life of Surgeon-Major George A. Hutton / With an introduction by R. Lawton Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    131/264 (page 95)
    signed by the general manager, which testify to the useful work done in dealing with accidents on the line. The example shown by Sir George Gibb and the North- Eastern Railway Company in forming a centre of their own has been followed by most of the leading railway companies in the country. Undoubtedly the public owes the highest service to the railway world, and those who belong to it. The fact that we travel with only one chance in eight millions of fatal accidents, and one chance in half a million of bodily injury, speaks volumes as to the efficiency of the man power behind the mechanical power. It is no exaggeration to say that railway-men serve the highest interests of civilization, because the railway is the material embodiment of the modern spirit, and without it modern society would be impossible. It is a matter of doubt whether the red badge of courage earned in the field of battle can compare with the cool and uninspired efforts that are made day by day for human safety by railway-men all over the country in the ordinary course of their work. Ambulance instruction must ever be of great benefit to all grades of railway employes. King Edward VII. truly said, as Prince of Wales, in 1873, at the annual dinner of the Railway Benevolent Institution : ‘Not a day goes by but most of you travel once, probably twice. In stepping into a railway carriage, do you not think of the risks you may run ? An accident may happen to any¬ one, though every possible security and guarantee may be given that no accident shall occur. Well, if we as passengers run risks, how much more do the officers and servants of the companies, and that not every day, but every hour and minute of their lives.’ The story of a great battle in which thousands fall instantly arrests