A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Cgg • SERVICE ON BOARD SHIP. the deck, iron standards for swinging cots, cots swinging from the roof, low berths, and hammocks. , , . , , In these sick transports the kits and clothes must be stowed away j and as they are often very dirty and offensive, and sometimes carry the poison of typhus and other diseases, the place where they are put should be constantly fumigated with nitrous and sulphurous acid alternately. Kobert Jackson mentions that dirty clothes and bedding may be soon washed sweet by mix ing oatmeal with salt water. Directly a sick transport has landed the sick, the whole place should be thoroughly washed and scraped, then the walls and ceiling should be lime- - washed, and the between-decks constantly fumigated till the very moment t i> when fresh sick embark. SECTION ILL HOSPITAL SHIPS. These are ships intended for the reception and treatment of the sick,— float- ing hospitals, in short. Whenever operations are undertaken along a seaboard, . and especially when a force is moving, and places for fixed hospitals cannot I be assigned, they are indispensable. They at once relieve the army from a» very heavy encumbrance, and, by the prompt attendance which can be givena to the sick, save many lives. They should always be organised at the com- • mencement of a campaign In the late Abyssinian war three hospital ships > were used. Their fitting out was carefully superintended by Deputy-Inspector- - General Dr Massy, and appears to have answered admirably. A full account of il one of these ships ( Queen of the South ) was given by the late Staff-Surgeon iP Charteris, to which reference may be made. The ventilation, as shown by ri ' the amount of carbonic acid (-708 per 1000 volumes) was very good * The?] superficial space between decks per man was on the night of the experiment t 154 feet, and the cubic space no less than 1076. During the Ashanti war r (1873-4) the line of battle ship Victor Emanuel was used as an hospital! ship and was most successful. A very full and detailed account of it is given i by Surgeon-Major T. M. Bleckley, C.B., in medical charge (see Army Medical Eeports. voL xv. p. 260.) The floor space per head was generally about oO square feet, and the cubic space about 480, although it was originally intended 1 to be less. , However convenient, and indeed necessary, they are, it must be clearly v understood that they are not equal to an hospital on shore. It is impossible < to ventilate and clean them thoroughly. The space is small between decks, i The wood gets impregnated with effluvia, and even sometimes the bdge is l contaminated. I have been informed by Dr Becher, late pathologist m China, that even in the very best of the hospitals used there, it was quite clear that in every wound there was evidence of a slight gangrenous tendency. In fact, it is perhaps impossible to prevent this, except by the most vigorous antiseptic treatment. . . The principle of separation should be carried out in these ships—one snip for wounded men, another for fevers, a third for mixed cases; or if this cannot be done, separate decks should be assigned for wounded men and fever cases. In fine weather the sick should be treated on deck under awnings. The between-decks must be thoroughly ventilated, and all measures o fumigation, frequent lime washing, &c, must be constantly employed Charcoal, also, in substance should be largely used, and is, in fact,jnute * 1 have to thank Dr Woodward for allowing me to read his excellent Report on the Hospital ship Mauritius/' which was also employed in Abyssinia.