Wounds in war : the mechanism of their production and their treatment / by W.F. Stevenson.

  • Stevenson, William Flack, 1844-1922.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wounds in war : the mechanism of their production and their treatment / by W.F. Stevenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the positions for the collecting and dressing stations may be so chosen as to place both as near as possible to the wounded, and thus lessen the labours of the stretcher bearers as far as may be feasible, and that, if there be a good water supply, the two posts may be combined. Absence of water would be the only necessity for separating the dressing station from the collecting station if the battle were finished, or proceeding at a distant part of the field ; but this may be overcome by the use of the water-cart, which forms part of the equipment of every bearer company. The Collecting Station is to be formed as near to where the wounded lie as possible, but out of fire or under efficient cover. The ten wagons of the bearer company are assembled and drawn up, ready to receive the wounded for transport to the dressing stations, and then on to the field hospitals. The two stretcher sections of four squads each, under the command of the third medical officer, go to the front, and having applied such surgical treatment as may be considered necessary, pick up the wounded and carry them to the collecting station, for transport to the rear. At this part of the field no operative procedures should be attempted, except the ligature of bleeding vessels; but even for this, opportunity will seldom arise, for haemor- rhage from vessels requiring ligature for its control will usually prove fatal before assistance can arrive. Fractures of long bones should be provisionally put up by means of extemporary splints, such as swords, bayonets, scabbards, rifles, sticks, or straw gathered from the field, &c, &c, so as to prevent increase of the injury during transport. External wounds should be covered with first field dressings, without being wiped or cleaned in any way, or touched by hands or instruments. If more than this be done at the front, infection is sure to occur, and aseptic or antiseptic surgery will be rendered impossible or more difficult at the posts further to the rear ; the men of the stretcher squads should be carefully instructed to this effect. More clothing than is absolutely necessary should not be removed from the patients, and when it is found unavoidable to open up clothing, this should be done at the seams ; in this way articles of clothing will be less often lost, and repairs can