University Medical College - Scalpel Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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l 1 , 1 THE NURSES OE THE' + I T UNIVERSITY HGSPITAL S9 r X IAQ - sQ'23 , W' .IS v.:QIw E, X X 5 V ES? X T QT X X . X n xxufijpigmw x X I ' T S Wi Tfflfww f I hw N! NL xxx T I T T, N ,,, f T S ff lx ' ,f.x EN - I2 I A H' T ', Y S ' T Z f W-74 agmwxxx ft 1 T W'-M ui ll-I-Qisuig XX fix X Q! ! , 'SSN f 1 ' Y ' if Si Rx T ,J 9' x X X X ng f 9 X ? x Xe' g x x T X ANI Y N X XXX K X WX T , , fs' X 7-. ' T 1 Y E T E fy X -E1 T1LL'E.?x? T VIN ' -QA: I xx f- YV 1 K ' 4 i

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1 1 1 1 1 1 1. 1 l, 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 111 .1 11 .1 11 1 11' i1 '1 111. 11.1 11111 ,11 E. 1 L '1 1, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 food was tainted or fruit over ripe or water required boiling, notices should be posted to that effectg and such should the respect and discipline of every soldier from com- manding officers to the file and rank that obedience to all orders be absolute. The hospitals should be used for the care of casualties caused by shell and shrapnel. And not be loaded to their capacity with preventable diseases, such as diarrhea, dysenteries, typhoid fever, which are the result of improper feeding and drinking and neglected sanitation. These diseases have brought more campaigns to disastrous termination than the strategies of opposing generals or the bullets of their followers. Armies will have their deaths, their killings and their tragedies but they are legitimate tragedies of war, and should not be murders through criminal neglect. Our government will not tolerate the maintenance of a large army in time of peace, its presence being considered a menace to republican institutions, it is, therefore, more necessary to us than to any other country in existence to have the best equipped and most efficient medical department of any service in the worldg a department whose elasticity will be sufficiently great to permit of its rapid extension in the emergency of war. ' At such times, of course, it must draw its working force from civil life. And if the best element of the profession at large is to be enlisted, it is only fair and just to that profession, that it should receive due recognition. The instruction and examination of members of the hospital corps of the national guard is very lax. And the instructions to the rank and file is almost nothing. And the condition is not to be wondered at where we consider that this government pays the medical department nothing for their serv- ices. And in many instances supplies such as medicine, bandages and instruments must be paid for out of their own purse. Some of the states are positively niggardly when it comes to maintaining their citizen soldiery. In 1894 the French in their Madagascar campaign lost seven thousand- men out of fourteen thousand from preventable diseases, most of them could have been saved with proper sanitary and medical provisions only twenty-nine died from bullets. I mention this bit of history to impress upon you if pos- sible the tremendous importance of fighting the silent foe that is always present as well as the open foe in the field. Until the surgeon general department is lifted to a plane far above its pres-ent level and is given power to enforce its prerogatives its fight against the silent foe -that has killed eighty per cent in every war in which America has ever engaged cannot be crowned with victory. It is not for the officer but for the file and rank who brave the brunt of the battle that the appeal should be made.

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THE UNIVERSITY HOSITAL