Under the red crescent : being surgical experiences and observations as an ambulance surgeon in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 / by Robert Pinkerton.

  • Pinkerton, Robert, M.B.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Under the red crescent : being surgical experiences and observations as an ambulance surgeon in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 / by Robert Pinkerton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    •cid, I should say that for that alone, it deserves our very best thanks, at least of those of us who have been in similar posi- ti ' ' .se referred to here. With a 1 U) 20 watery solution ^ We attacked those Ibul suppurating: wounds, and after a thorouj^h syrinirinL' out with it, we washed theui out once a day, ofu;ner if j with a 1 to 40 solution, and in a few days the wounds were comparatively fresh and clean, ^' ' ' of danger and discomfort t . - I... .^ Ktuin-; smell of the putrid >v _ ^iven place to what, by way of contrast, might well be tenuevl tlie fra»jrant odour of carbolic acid. It is, I think, absolutely impossible in military practice to expect ever to be able to carry out the antiseptic treatment of wounds with all t! 1 to detail rexjuircd by Mr. Lister. Even Mr. leister, in .-.actions he publi.shed for use during; the late Franco-< .n war, entitled A Mci/tod of A nilsvplic 7 '-nt hie to Wounded Soldi-erH, although he is evidently striving to reduce to a minimum the necessary d- • of .such a tn'ntinont. yet most signally fails to solve the ni.,. V viir • n'^ litliculty in this matter, and show a possible way oi ^r; , ^ ..i'-, at kiast, of the beneiits of tlie aiitisoj)tic treatment in active military practice. The method he proposes is cumbersome to a degree, both in reganl to the material and the time necessan.-. An«l I agree most fully with Mr. Longmore in his adverse criticism of it, especially when he concludes— from the nature of -mti^w * m,,mtv]vi^ and from the circum- stances under which th . in warfare, it is scarcely credible that an^- plan of treatment, the success of which must depend on the ngid exclusion of such germs, can ever possibly be c ■ ' into ] o in the field. At the same time, I do not >t wnytl ' m, the foundation principles of which are now so gc; y admitted to be true, should not be carried out in military practice so far as possible. It is a mistake, often made, to suppose that you must throw the whole thing overboard because you cannot carry it out in its entirety. I think in military p' a great step will have been made in this direction, from v i., we may expect no small amount of benefit to follow, if the Li.sterian ideas were only carried out so far as to make it possible to dress each wound with carbolic acid dressings, and wash it out thoroughly and regularly with a carbolic solution of definite strength. This is the length to which we may reasonably expect to be able to caiTy out the antiseptic treatment in military practice—the only requisites being a good supply of the acid, with means of making up the solution, as near as possible, at least, to a standard strength,