WITH ALL AIDS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17109, 2 April 1921, Page 7

WITH ALL AIDS.

'doctors to the rescue of suffering humanity,

TEAM WQEBLAT TBBNTHAM.

Most people have little idea of' tto vast advance medical science has made in its methods during the past few years, particularly during the period of tho war aud after, Tho war wmh great training ground for the ctodenb of the profession devoted to tho alloviatiou of pain and tlio euro of disease. A» always, when man has nioro work to d«* than human hands and brain can well accomplish, ho invented" machinery to save time and labour, and improved U*» ways and moans of tackling'tho urgent. problems beforo him, finding, for instance, or rather rediscovering, tho truth that. a. given number of men can do more by working together than they can individually on their own account. So there eume about manifold apparatus and appliances of ail kinds, and M the sciences were enlisted in tho effort .<•» deal with tlie thousands of sick and wounded who eaine beforo tho coniparativohandful cF doctors for treatraeut m the war. Lessons of the War* Many of tho lessons—perhaps,, meat of the "lessons learned during tho wax-'-aro ciubedied in tho work of tho medical staff and* the equipment; of tho Military Hospital at Trcntbam in so visiblo » concrete form that even tho casual layman, passing through on a flying vu»t, may see, and in some measure understand, the charigo that haabeebwrought and the progress made. When ont« thinks of-ea/lier wars—of Nightingale, for instance, in the Crimea, % wiudst shambles of tho crude surgery of Army doctors sixty odd year* ago-* one realises how much tho badly wounded soldier or the war-sick veteran owes* to his doctors and nurses to-day. He is now no corphs vile for experiment, but ' tho subject of the most patient, loving kindness, and tho highest skill in treatment ihat tlio country can produce. >•» money has been spared in tho. purohaMi of costly, delicate apparatus for Hte diagnosis of his ailment and_ remedial applianees.to repair, as far as is humanly possible, tho sad havoo played by war on his frame.

The Magic X-wy. Take, for instance, the X-ray room— ■ the radiograph laboratory, as it might, perhaps, be termed. For several year* tho X-ray, discovered by tho Viennese professor, Itontgen, was more of * curiosity than of practical vain©. To-day It lias been enlisted science as, one of its most procwraa aid* ana instruments in the investigationofcilhvnatund o r accidental, of tho human body. An X-vay machine will show, not only top presence of any foreign Bubstance, such as a fragment of shell or a bullet, m the body; not only fracture in bones, but also the existence of disease of aonormality in such organ* ae the hurts, awajach, or intestines. Out at Trentham tho radiographic expert, a genuine, enthusiast in the chosen branch of hisprpfession, has gatherod-a most interesting collection of - radiographs, or X;i*yphotographs of cases. 'Hero, espocwuy with the aid of * double, negative and a. sterecscopio apparatus, it is possible to see the tiny hoar-like network of linen on a head, showing tho fracture of thi* skull of a patient 4 aeen-a minute before - lying iu his bed in one of .(he wards. Here,. :too,. are radiographs ( of broken* legs, of the bono in the stump o'f an amputated leg decaying, of peculiar d**' formilies in tho limbs, and, perhaps, most interesting of all, of disease in ttof? alimentary canal revealed totheounern by a special process. There is hardly anything in-,the human not • visible to-day by tho magio light of ' these miraculous rays. Symptom*','of * trouble iii the lungs, the hrer, 'tho heart, the intestines can all be detected under the searching eye of. this wonder - of the age. Best of tall, the radiograph , has been made safe" for the observer* whereas many of tho early pionearoi&us oumbed to the malignancy of somothinjt in the Tay before Adequate protection, ' was .discovered." To describe th*" apparatus would bo too ntucb wittkra? V technical terminology ' the general public. , Like many other '' things in medical science,' it has become ; the province' of the expert and '-i.tbe specialist. • \[ i f Comrades in the Job. \ , There.are many other 'steles/ilr/the ■'- treatment of the victims of/wjjf,. «t Trentham that deserve mt length—the work of the phyalottuerapeutio section, which applies to * the putient the soothing, foaling inftMM* of massage, galvanio atunulaMon. ; «lw' special baths; the researcher; itbe ' bacteriologist and pathologist 'uvdew- ) mining tjie oharacter of the defdly '{ germ which is at the source of so* tfiny j uman ills; the operating tieatre whore J distinguished surgeons give the'beat of. ■ their natural and acquired talent to & the removal of thetcauso of oJaictton, 1 helped here, too, by radiographs of the ' case/set before that the* may more folly and expeditiously*■:

Working Together. V ..J JJut tho main thing, altar aU, tkal v f impresses .thb^.visitor at Tretittiiun n ~ tho loyal, and hearty co-operation of * •■;• team, of" expert*, each- in nia tntn Htt»., .( Tim :s tho ''team-work.", lattght by the exigencies of war. SaldieJ#i<woniW* * cd or sick, there went through tho » : / hands of.tho various spedoliets, ©oca Of H whom added his titho to the diagnodi* . and treatment of the case, and w> at- . tonishing were, the results, that #£ j medical officers, who ''went through ft' -,$ aTe convinced thatit is tho only* wayin '*= peaeo as well as in war to deal with' '--l suffering humanity properly. Through "team-work" tho caso is tooassod, a* ? it were, under the gas© of i cialists, each viewing it from hirjwn | standpoint, and tho results arocouatw „"■ hy the captain of tho team in conttna- w ti'on with Ida staff, on'd from tho tfe- i ports a j complete diagnosis is roadbed. _> No man can Know all about ovcrytjuttjk y but it is still possiblo to know prootfeally all about something and ft WWg •« about everything. Thus too tomTwr specialists works under the right **|Si x like one single genius of porteattj* knowledge and skill, all to tho b****t . of the patient. To hear v , "team" talking shop at mess, for » m tf . still a military hospital, isto ***?*** ■ ' stand what true toani work WW. ~/,: Just as footballers talk ovortließJMeh £: of the day and discuss tactics for w match to come, so the v ferent language, ib is. iru*;.Gr»MCto r the layman—discuss tho different »«*» s of their, cases an they appear oacn to each. Tho net effect must bo profoundly satisfying Hot only to tt» . patient, but to the medical man themselves, for, as service men well know, there is nothing bettor thatf wmnswship in tho job—Wellington "KreMn* ' Post."