A report on a plan for transporting wounded soldiers by railway in time of war : with descriptions of various methods employed for this purpose on different occasions / by George A. Otis.

  • George Alexander Otis
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on a plan for transporting wounded soldiers by railway in time of war : with descriptions of various methods employed for this purpose on different occasions / by George A. Otis. 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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    In a letter to the Surgeon General, dated Philadelphia, January 7, 1863, Surgeon A. K. Smith, U. S. A., describes a car recently fitted up by the Philadelphia Railroad Company for the better conveyance of the worse class of sick and wounded. * * * The internal arrangements are similar to those of sleeping cars, with the exception that the berths slide in and out, and two men can carry each, with its patient, to the ambulance wagon or the nearest hospital, the berths being, in fact, comfortable stretchei'S. The car has fifty-one of these berths, and a seat at each end for an attendant. It is provided with a stove, on which soups can be cooked, a water tank and locker, and a con- venient water-closet. It is proposed to use the car with the regular passenger trains, and to bring to Philadelphia cases of a more serious nature than can be selected for transfer by the ordinary mode of travel. This an-angement is entered into with great zeal by Mr. Felton, President of the road, the plan being in a great measure due to the efibrts of Mr. William Welsh. If proved to work well, I am satisfied in saying that more cars will be similarly con-- structed for the purpose of bringing the seriovisly sick and badly wounded from Fig. 2.—Longitudinal section of a passenger car fitted ui) as an hospital car. [After Evans.] Frederick and Harper's Ferry. This proposition was warmly seconded at Washing-ton, and a number of passenger cars, converted to hospital require- ments, and hospital cars also of special construction, were soon iu operation on the railway lines connecting the theatre of hostilities with Baltimoi-e, Harris- burg, Philadelphia and New York. They were not fitted up on a uniform plan, but under the auspices of different benevolent associations; but all secured a comparatively comfortable mode of transport for recumbent patients, and rendered almost inestimable service in relieving the crowded hospitals near the scene of hostilities. The hospital cars fitted out by the United States Sanitary Commission are understood to have been arranged in accordance with plans furnished by Dr. Elisha Harris.* A model of one of these cars was exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1867 (see FiG. 2). These cars were * Stille (C. J.) History of the United States Sanitary Commisgion, Philadelphia, 1866, p. 161, Hamilton (F. H.), A Treatise on Military Surgery and Hygiene, New York, 1865, p. 168, and Evans (T. W.), La Commission Sanitaire des Etats- Unis, Paris, 1865, p. 133, et Planche IV. A letter on file in the OflBoe of the Quartermaster General, indicates that Dr. Harris invited General Meigs to inspect one of these hospital cars as early as March 20,1863.
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