With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American EffortHungerford, Edward
History
With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort
Hungerford, Edward
American National Red Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
One other allied factor in this hospital supply service deserves
attention before we finally turn away from it. I have referred from time
to time to the vast quantities of drugs which our Red Cross distributed
to both its own and other hospital centers. It was obvious that this
distribution had to be centralized, and because of the delicate and
extremely valuable nature of this particular form of supplies be kept
quite separate and distinct from the others. So "The Red Cross
Pharmacy," as it was generally called, came into existence, at a former
apartment building at No. 10 Rue de Tilsitt, Paris, and quickly came to
such importance that it was made the headquarters of the Section of
Hospital Supplies, which in turn was a division of the larger Bureau of
Hospital Administration.
Throughout all of the hard months of the war this section boasted that
each night found the requisitions for that day filled. There were no
left-overs; not even when a single day's work meant fifty-six huge
orders entirely completed, and little rest for a staff which averaged
forty-one men and women.
The pharmacy was well systematized. In its basement were the receiving,
the packing, and the shipping departments, while upon its broad main
floor the drugs and antiseptics were actually stored, the second floor
being given to dental supplies, surgical instruments, rubber goods,
sutures, serums, laboratory equipment, and the like. Each of these
various departments was in charge of a specialist, a man of many years'
experience in the line which he headed.
By June, 1918, the pharmacy in the Rue de Tilsitt had become of such
importance that it was re-created into a Section of Supplies, with Major
George L. Burroughs, of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston,
as its sectional chief. Within a month he had found the demands upon his
department so much increased that he was forced in turn to increase its
facilities--by the addition of two warehouses. In another six weeks a
new burden was placed upon his shoulders--the distribution of all
alcohol, ether, oxygen, and nitrous acid issued by our Red Cross, which
meant, of course, more space needed--so the unused powder magazine at
Fort D'Ivry and the riding academy at No. 12 Rue Duphot--both loaned by
the French Government authorities--were added to the quarters of the
pharmacy.
Some idea of the amount of work undertaken and accomplished by this Red
Cross pharmacy may be gained when it is understood that in the six
months ending January, 1919, 75,016 pounds of drugs were issued from it.
There were in that time 3,954,178 tablets, 21,566 phials of serum, 271
surgical units, 15,108 pairs of rubber gloves, and 22,059 feet of
adhesive plaster, in addition to many hundreds of packets of other drug
supplies.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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