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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    earnestness, during the war, the establishment and organization of railway transport for the sick and wounded. A brief and somewhat inaccurate account of this system was published in 1865 by Professor F. H. Hamilton* The plan was cursorily alluded to the same year, in a surgical report from this Ofl&ce,f and more fully described in a work by Dr. T. W. Evans, of Paris.J Dr. Harris proposed to suspend three tiers of litters from upright oaken stanchions 4 inches wide by 2 inches thick, extending from the floor to the roof of the car, which gave a length of about 6 or 6 J feet (Fig. 13, B and C). The stanchions were placed in pairs, the fellow posts 22 inches apart, and 6 J feet Fig. n.-TTie''free or inside method distant from the next couple (FiG. 19). The of suspending litters hy rubber rings, stanchions at the end of each row of uprights [After Harris.] <? . i . • -i i i i? were periorated to receive on the broad lace three hickory pins an inch in diameter, and three on the narrow face; the other stanchions, each pair contributing to the support of two tiers of litters, were provided with twelve pins (Fig. 13, B, C), six termed holder or loop pins, and six arresting pins or stops (Fig. 13, F, D), designed to prevent the undue descent of the litter. Around the pins on the broad face of the pillars were placed loops or tugs of vulcanized india-rubber, 3 inches broad, i inch thick, with 4 inches aperture, and weighing 9 J ounces Troy. The handles of the stretchers, sawn off at 7^ inches from the margins of the canvas, were inserted in the rings, which were put upon the stretch by the weight of the pa- tient. Too great oscillation was prevented by the stopping pins, or by substituting more massive rubber rings. The holder-pin for the lower stretcher was 9 J inches from the floor, the stop-pin, 3 inches. The space between the upper and middle, and the middle and lower stretchers was about 19 inches. The inside length of the cars fitted up varied from 41 to 47 feet, and would accommo- date four or five tiers of litters on either side, with space reserved for seats, closets, and ofiices at the ends. The inside width of the cars Fig. Ib.—Pilloios for stretchers. TAfter Harris.] * Hamilton (F. H.) A Treatise on Military Surgery and Hygiene, New York, 1865, p. 168. The remarkable statement is made that: The stretchers are suspended on loops made of gutta- percha, a singularly unsuitable material. t Circular No. 6, S. G. 0., Washington, 1865. Reports on the Extent and Nature of the Materials available for the Preparation of a Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion,—Surgical Report, p. 84. Diagrams were given (Figs. 88, 89, 90), from a photograph by Gardner, of the working drawings of the first hospital car exhibited by Dr. Harris in Washington, in March, 1863. I found the photograph on file, but, at that time, could obtain no precise information of its origin. t Evans (T. W.) La Commission Sanitaire des Mats- Unis, etc., Paris, 1865.
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