Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/705

Rh AMBULANCE 667 AMBULANCE STAFF. The scheme of ambulance adminis tration and action just described involves the necessity of a staff comprising the following personnel, viz.: 1. Bearers of wounded; 2. Surgeons and attendants; 3. Ambulance train personnel ; 4. Ambulance police ; 5. Servants to officers. Bearers of Wounded. These are soldiers specially trained and told off for the duty of picking up and carry ing the badly wounded on stretchers. In Continental armies special provision is made to meet this particular want, but under different systems in different armies. In the Prussian army companies of bearers, distinguished by a particular uniform, and denominated &quot; sanitats-detache- ments,&quot; have the duty assigned to them of gathering the wounded during battles, and carrying them to the dressing and field hospital stations. Each of these bearer columns consists of a military staff of officers for discipline and direction, non-commissioned officers, buglers, and a large number of bearers ; a special medical staff, with assistants and dressers ; a transport staff of non-commissioned officers and drivers, with a certain number of stretchers, wheeled stretcher supports, sick transport waggons, and store waggons for the carriage of instruments, dressings, and other necessary materials. Separate establishments exist for the field hospitals. In addition to these sanitary detachments, auxiliary sick-bearers (Hilfs-kranlcentr tiger] are provided for service on occasions of great battles. To form these auxiliaries, four men in each company of every battalion of the army are practised at regular periods with the sanitary detachments in time of peace in the modes of picking up, temporarily attending to, and carrying wounded. These auxiliary bearers wear the uniform of their regiments, of which they perform the ordinary duties, but have a distinguishing badge on the left arm when serving as bearers. &quot;When a battle is imminent, the auxi liary bearers fall out, are provided with stretchers and other needful appliances from the ambulance waggons, and act under the orders of the officers of the divisional sanitary detachments. The system in the Austrian army is very like that in the Prussian. In the British army no corresponding establishment exists. The hospital attend ants belonging to the Army Hospital Corps are trained in all that refers to the care of wounded men, but in time of war they will be too urgently needed for their duties in the field and fixed hospitals to be spared for duty as bearers of the wounded from the field to the dressing stations. The regimental bandsmen are generally regarded as available for these duties in the British service ; but though the army regulations order that bandsmen are liable to serve in the ranks on an emergency, they nowhere constitute them bearers of wounded, nor do bandsmen receive the necessary training to fit them for the duties. As it is understood that the ambulance arrangements of the British army are at present under consideration, this, with other details, will probably be shortly placed on a settled basis. Surgical Staff. This section embraces the medical officers (administrative and executive), the dispensers of medicine, and the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the Army Hospital Corps. The last-named corps includes the dressers, nurses, cooks, and all the hospital subordinates who are required for the care, dieting, watch ing, and protection of the patients, for the hospital cor respondence, &e. The men act professionally under the directions of the surgeons ; in respect of other matters, under their own officers. The constitution and duties of the several divisions and grades of the army medical department are shown in a special code of instructions known as the &quot; Army Medical Regulations.&quot; Amlmlane.?. Train. On the officers and men of the ambulance train devolve the duties of conducting the wheeled transport, and the mule litters and cacolets when such conveyances are used. In the British service these duties are entrusted to the ordinary transport branch of the Control department. It has been recommended that the officers and men to whom these duties are entrusted should be specially selected and trained, as well as fami liarised, to co-operate with the bearers and ambulance corps. They would thus form an ambulance train some what like that which exists in the sanitary detachments o f the Prussian army. Military Servants. Orderlies are required as servants to the ambulance surgeons and other officers, in order that they may give their time fully to the concerns of the sick and wounded. When special orderlies are not provided, men of the Army Hospital Corps usually act as servants to officers, a bad system, for the whole time and services of these trained men should be devoted to their legitimate functions. Ambulance Police. Many irregularities are liable to occur in the rear of troops engaged in a general action; not so much from acts of the troops themselves as from camp followers, hired drivers, and others. The officers charged with the military discipline of the bearer, train, and hospital corps have other pressing duties to engage them on such occasions. In the British army it devolves on the provost-marshal to arrange for this service. AMBULANCE EQUIPMENT. As before mentioned, ambu lance equipment divides itself into two categories: 1. The medical and surgical equipment; 2. The equipment for the transport of wounded. These divisions will therefore be noticed separately, and the description will be confined to the equipment supplied in the British army for service in Europe. In India and in tropical countries special ambulance equipments are rendered necessary. Medical and Surgical Equipment. This portion of am bulance equipment consists of the articles necessary for the service of the wounded in the field itself, at the dressing stations, and in the field hospitals. It has to be distributed in forms such that it may be readily conveyed to the places where it is required, and such also as will admit of its being hastily packed up and removed should the circum stances of the field operations require it. At the same time, these forms must be adapted for use at all seasons of the year, for passage over all descriptions of ground that troops can march over, and must be protected against the effects of exposure to all varieties of weather. It would occupy too much space to name the articles comprising this equipment. The special forms under which it is issued will be mentioned, and a brief explanation of them and the nature of their contents be added. The equipment is distributed as follows: Supplies of instruments, dressings, medicines, and restoratives, of first necessity, in small cases named &quot; medical field com panions,&quot; and in large cases named &quot; field panniers ;&quot; of cooking utensils and other articles for field hospital service in &quot;canteens;&quot; of articles of light nourishment, stimu lants, etc., in &quot;medical comfort boxes;&quot; of hospital tents, bedding, and the bulkier articles of surgical equipment, in ambulance equipment carts or store waggons. In addi tion, every soldier on taking the field is supplied with a &quot;field dressing;&quot; each surgeon carries a pouch-belt, ar ranged both for distinguishing his functions and at the same time carrying his &quot;pocket case&quot; of instruments; and each Army Hospital Corps man has his &quot; orderly s dressing-case.&quot; Every wounded man has therefore on his person the means of a first dressing for his wound, every surgeon has at hand instruments for affording surgical aid, and every ambulance and field hospital attendant the