Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900: Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small CalibreMakins, George Henry
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Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900: Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre
Makins, George Henry
Gunshot wounds; South African War, 1899-1902; Surgery, Military
As to the broad question of canvas _v._ buildings, experience amply
showed that in a climate such as is possessed by South Africa, canvas
affords the greater advantages. The hospitals are more mobile, more
readily extended, and the more healthy. Except under unusual conditions
of rain and dust, the patients did excellently in the tents.
Rain and dust were occasionally most troublesome, especially when
combined with wind. I once saw a whole hospital, fortunately unoccupied,
levelled to the ground in the course of some twenty minutes. Under such
circumstances iron huts present advantages, and were on many occasions
utilised with much success. They are readily erected, and it would have
been a considerable improvement if a number of them had been ready for
use at the earliest part of the campaign. Except in the matter of
weight, they possess in a considerable degree the advantage of mobility
possessed by canvas, and in addition they offer much more protection
from the weather. On the other hand, they are more liable to become
unhealthy from prolonged use.
Churches and public institutions were mainly troublesome from the
necessity of having to improvise sanitary arrangements, and sometimes
the disadvantage of the collection of a large number of men in one
chamber could not be avoided. None the less I cannot look back without
admiration on the temporary hospitals established in the Raadzaal at
Bloemfontein, and the Irish hospital in the Palace of Justice in
Pretoria.
The State schools in the smaller towns of the Orange River Colony also
afforded excellent accommodation as small temporary hospitals.
Private houses, possessing the disadvantages of ill-adapted construction
and the necessity of a considerably increased staff to work them, were
on the whole little used as hospitals. The scattered farmhouses
occasionally afforded shelter to very severely wounded men. In most of
the country I traversed, however, the farms were so wide apart as to be
of little use in this respect; and again, under the special
circumstances, patients left in them might have to be abandoned to the
enemy.
The chief interest during the campaign centred in the working of the
Field and General hospitals.
Two types of Field hospital were employed, one the Home, the other the
Indian. The latter differs from the Home in that in it the bearer
company is attached and consists of Indian natives, and that the
hospital is separable into four sections in place of two only.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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