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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    The difl&culty of introducing loaded streteliers or litters through the narrow end doors of the converted passenger cars was obviated, in the train prepared under the supervision of Drs. Cooper and Herrick, by leaving the middle sec- tion on one side free from beds, removing two windows and the panelling beneath, and introduc- ing a sliding door, six feet in width, affording an ample space for the ingress and egress of lit- ters with the most severely wounded patients. Descriptions of the kitchen, office, and dis- pensary cars, which added greatly to the efficiency of these trains, are omitted here. A further description of the hospital trains of the Army of the Cumberland has been given by Dr. Dallas Bache, U. S. A.* In addition to the illustrations that were published with his paper, it may be useftd to add diagrams ex- plaining the details of the ar- rangements for suspending litters from upright posts in adapting Fig. 13.— Uprights and elastic ring couplings for sus- cars for hospital purposes (Figs. ^^'^'^ ^'^'''' ^^ ^^'^^ Z?'. ^' ^^^ ''^'■'^^* ^-f iT jr V next the passage-way; C. The fellow-post next the side 13, 14, 15) that were planned by of the car,- P. Oblique view of the coupling hy rubier Dr. Harris in December 1862 bands,- D. Lateral vieio of the coupling by rubber bands. -, „ ,, . . ' [After Haekis.] and successiully put in practical operation in the Spring of 1863.f It has been shown | that the adaptation of cars to hospital purposes by securing field stretchers to rows of stanchions was prac- tised from a very early period of the late war; but the merit of devising a simple and effective method of suspending the stretchers by rubber rings was exclusively due to Dr. Elisha Harris, who, moreover, promoted with great 2) *See Report of Assistant Surgeon D. Bache, U. S. A., in Appendix to Part I, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, p. 289. t Since the foregoing portion of this report was in print, Dr. Harris has very kindly placed at the disposition of the Surgeon General's Office, the original specifications and drawings of his plan for railway hospital carriages, together with many memoranda of the early trips of the cars first constructed, copies of much interesting correspondence on the subject, and samples of rubber bands in good condition, that had been for two years in daily use. I hope to avail more largely of these valuable sources of information in treating of this subject in the third surgical volume of the Medical and Surgical History of the War. t Pages 6 and 7 ante.
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