100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/influenza-no-improvement-tv85cqpm8

OCTOBER 29, 1918

‘Influenza’: no improvement

Our obituary columns this morning bear melancholy witness to the ravages of the great plague of influenza and pneumonia. Messages from one or two places in the country state that the epidemic is abating, but in London there is little or no sign of improvement. Yesterday the number of members of the Metropolitan Police Force suffering from influenza had risen to 1,410, and deaths to 30. Of the London Fire Brigade staff 117 are ill. At Hackney fire station seven men out of 11 are on the sick list. During the 48 hours ending at 7 o’clock yesterday morning 61 persons seized with influenza in the streets were taken to hospitals by the ambulance service. Several of the London borough councils are making a house-to-house distribution of leaflets advising people of the best preventives and giving instructions as to what to do in case a member of the household becomes afflicted.

During the week-end there were 57 deaths in Poplar from the disease, 12 of which occurred in institutions. The borough of St Pancras has been placarded with posters advising the public to keep warm and rest in bed on the first appearance of the symptoms of influenza. A gargle is recommended consisting of a saltspoonful of salt in half a glass of water, coloured purple with a weak solution of permanganate of potash.

At the London Hospital between 20 and 80 nurses — one-tenth of the total nursing staff — are away from duty, and many additional beds had to be provided for new patients during the week-end. At the Great Northern Hospital there are about 100 cases. Some 20 nurses are away from duty, and the staff is much overworked. Many girls from the clerical department are doing light work in the wards.

Among the deaths recorded in our obituary columns on page 1 today are 34 from influenza, pneumonia, or kindred diseases, including 12 deaths of soldiers. Of the latter nine are attributed to pneumonia, combined in two cases with influenza, and in one each with malaria and dysentery; two to influenza and one to meningitis following influenza and pneumonia. Of the other 22 deaths, 10 are attributed to pneumonia and influenza combined, seven to pneumonia, four to influenza, and one to pleurisy following influenza.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/a-triumph-of-british-arms-7570dnntp

OCTOBER 11, 1918

A triumph of British arms

The British Army yesterday captured Le Cateau and retrod one of the most famous battlefields of the retreat from Mons. The Germans in the centre at Laon, and La Fère are cutting the margins of retreat very fine. The only weakness of the enveloping scheme is on the right of the Allied line. Owing to the enormous natural strength of the old German positions in Champagne and the Argonne, and to the lateness of our reconquest of the Suippe valley, this right wing is not so far forward as would be desirable. The main body of the German Army in France still has room for manoeuvre and delay. It may find another temporary line of resistance along the Serre and the Upper Aisne and, though this cannot be held for long owing to the breakthrough on the west, it may jam the closing of our strategic pincers.

The devastation of Cambrai seems to be less complete than was at first supposed, though the great Place d’Armes has been systematically and wantonly destroyed. But our Special Correspondent tells us this morning of a new and peculiarly mean piece of “frightfulness” in some of the deserted villages, where the Germans have deliberately broken up the embroidery machines, the only means of livelihood of the people of the district. No valour can defeat malice of this kind; it can only be defeated, if at all, by an act of policy, fully conceived and formally notified to the enemy.

General threats of reprisals do not meet the case; to be effective they must be specific. We do not mean that if the Germans burn a French town, we must burn a German town. We do mean that our reprisals should be of such a character as will deter the enemy, or, if not, punish him, and if possible compensate the sufferers for their losses. It may be that German towns could be more appropriately punished in other ways than by destruction. Ransom may take more forms than one. But in one form or another a German town should be held to ransom for the wanton destruction without military necessity of a French or Belgian town. And delay in the formulation of a policy is dangerous with events moving so rapidly: for, if nothing is done, the milestones of victory in the occupied districts of France and Belgium will be marred by heaps of smouldering ashes.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/king-at-baseball-match-krzfp3llt

JULY 5, 1918

King at baseball match

Yesterday’s baseball match on the Chelsea Football Ground was an awakener for London, a revelation of America at play. The afternoon was as strenuous as a pillow-fight in a boys’ dormitory, and took us away to those distant times when we could rejoice under a blue sky without looking for Zeppelins and Gothas.

The afternoon passed in such a pandemonium as was perhaps never heard before on an English playing-field; not even on a football ground. The United States seemed to be shouting in chorus and Great Britain joined in. Never, moreover, was a football ground so arrayed. The dingy surroundings were shut out by a square mile or two of flags, “Old Glory” and the Union Jack predominating. The grandstand was gorgeously draped, and the King and Queen went to their seats by a flowery way. Both for distinction and for enthusiasm the gathering was without precedent in baseball, or rather “the ball game,” as the more knowing spectators were careful to call it. The Army players wore green with blue caps, the Navy blue trimmed with red. They assembled before the Royal box, and the King, descending among them, shook hands with the captains.

Baseball is one of the fastest and most exciting methods of getting breathless ever invented. It calls for great skill, and its rewards are salaries beyond the dreams of avarice. The dignity of cricket it disowns; the tremulous tumult of football is as the recreation of well-mannered mice by comparison. The players think by lightning and field, catch, and throw with the certainty of a stopwatch. As if the chaff of the spectators were not sufficient for them, they chivy one another. The catcher is padded like an armchair, and must be able to take punishment with the calm of a prize-fighter.

We should not care to say which was the better side because, frankly, we do not know. But the Navy won by two to one and appeared to deserve its victory. Naval officers rubbed shoulders with Army officers, the uniforms of the United States with those of the United Kingdom. The Stars and Stripes was waved by every man, woman, and child; and there could be no doubt of a whole-hearted acceptance of America as a comrade in play and a near relation in the great work that lies before the two big English-speaking families.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-07-04/register/influenza-epidemic-spreading-jdj86nz3c

JULY 4, 1918

Influenza epidemic spreading

The influenza epidemic shows no sign of abatement and in many large towns schools have been closed and business is seriously hampered. The Irish Registrar-General reported five deaths due to influenza in Dublin last week. There have also been fatal cases in London. In Birmingham and district the doctors are at their wits’ end to know how to deal with the number of patients. One found 178 waiting for him when he arrived at his surgery. Last week there were 10 deaths in the city traceable to the disease. Many teachers and hundreds of children are away from school. The munition factories and ironworks are seriously affected. Numbers of men and women have had to be sent home in ambulances owing to the suddenness of the seizure. The doctors’ surgeries in Manchester are not only crowded, but queues have to be controlled outside dispensing centres. Schools have been closed, and large business firms are severely handicapped. The authorities agree that the present disease resembles a form of West Indian fever known as “deugnes”. Sixty tramway-car drivers and guards are off duty, and at the sheds absentees number 200. A prisoner at the assizes could not be tried for bigamy because he was suffering from influenza. There are many victims in Newcastle, on Tyneside, and in Northumberland. Several of the city policemen and firemen have been overcome, and a few persons have collapsed in the streets. Numbers of nurses and medical students are affected. In the surrounding country the epidemic is equally severe. Coalminers especially have been attacked. One colliery had 18 underground lads “off” in a single day. The Nottinghamshire collieries have had similar experiences. In a pit at Mansfield 250 men were out one day, and the hosiery and boot factories have lost many of their women workers. One of the biggest mills has had to close and several deaths are reported. The epidemic is spreading in Surrey, particularly in the Egham and Woking areas.

At an inquest at Deptford on two boys of 10 years of age the doctor said that the evidence pointed to influenza being the cause of death. He expressed the opinion that germs entered by the mouth and nose. To rinse the mouth and nostrils every morning with a tepid solution of salt and water was a good safeguard.

100 Years Ago - Medical Services

A "BAG" OF RATS FROM THE FRENCH TRENCHES

VOLUNTEERS FOR EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION WITH TRENCH FEVER, AND

THEIR NURSES.

CLEAN SHIRTS FOR BRITISH SOLDIERS


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/soldiers-heart-2c50jpwm7?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_21.02.2018%20Health%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2955537_118

Soldier’s heart

Of the cases of so-called “soldier’s heart” - which is not true heart disease but is often treated as such - about 60 per cent returned to duty as the result of a system of physical training

April 2, 1917

Some remarkable views are expressed in the “Report Upon Soldiers returned as Cases of Disordered Action of the Heart or Valvular Disease of the Heart” just issued by the Medical Research Committee. The report is the result of the work carried out at the Hampstead Military Hospital at the instance of Sir Alfred Keogh, who appointed Sir Clifford Allbutt, Sir James Mackenzie, and Sir William Osler consultants to the hospital. Dr Thomas Lewis, the head of the clinical staff of the Medical Research Committee, was placed in control of the research work. A number of officers specially selected by the War Office, and including two officers of the Canadian Army Medical Service, composed the staff, and a vast amount of highly specialized scientific work was carried out.

The report makes a protest against medical examinations in these cases founded on the detection of so-called abnormalities while the patient “is at rest”. The test of a hearts capacity, certain forms of gross disease having been eliminated, is its power to do work. Of the cases of so-called “soldier’s heart” - which is not true heart disease at all but is often treated as such - about 60 per cent returned to duty as the result of a system of physical training. The usual stay in hospital,too, was cut down by about half. This was an immense saving of time and money and it proved that the test of capacity is the true test in these cases, for nearly half of the men who returned to duty had “systolic murmurs” which, by older standards, might have gained for them the diagnosis of “heart disease”.
The fact was that the men with these supposed disability signs did just as well as the men without them. “Rest in bed”, says the report, “is harmful, and should be avoided at all stages of treatment except in instances of severe praecordial pain, severe headache, or severe giddiness”.
The ordinary symptoms of “soldier’s heart” are breathlessness, pain, exhaustion, giddiness and fainting, with palpitation, lassitude, and irritability. Having established the test value of capacity to do work as against sounds heard with a stethoscope and the value of physical training as against rest in bed, the report goes the length of stating that “auscultation” (ie, the use of the stethoscope) “is the least valuable method employed in sorting soldiers suffering from cardiovascular derangements the sorting can almost always be effected without its aid.”
This again is a very striking view, for the use of the stethoscope is universal and the respect paid to its findings often reverent. The report appeals to common sense against exaggerated fears “of overlooking early heart disease” by the dictum: “It may be taken as an axiom that no soldier who is free from symptoms on duty has an affection of the heart which incapacitates him, and this axiom may be adopted irrespective of any unusual sign found in the heart. Now actual heart disease in young soldiers, in the absence of a history of rheumatic fever or of syphilis, is a comparative rarity.”

It is recommended that attention should not be called to “heart trouble” in these cases at all, as thereby undue fears are aroused. A further recommendation which is of value at present is that men from sedentary occupations should be very carefully scrutinized and trained “by tenderer methods in the initial stages than those in vogue for conscripts as a whole.”
The choice of the Hampstead Hospital for this work was a very happy one. The fine air and good surroundings have certainly played an important part in helping soldiers towards recovery and so in promoting the success of treatment. The hospital has from the beginning been under the able command of Colonel T More Reid, who recently conducted the King and Queen over it.

100 Years Ago - The Army Medical Service and the New Medicine

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/open-air-cure-for-soldiers-9rrtkkd9h?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_October%2004,%202017&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2349394_118

THE DOCTOR WRITES A LETTER FOR A WOUNDED MAN

OPEN-AIR TREATMENT AT ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL

OUTSIDE AN ADVANCED DRESSING STATION

A ' WARD ,IN ENDELL STREET HOSPITAL.

" 'This 'hospital was' staffed -entirely bywomen

Open air cure for soldiers

Protection from the weather is given by verandahs with glazed roofs and sides, but quite open in front, though in extreme weather further protection is afforded by sailcloth screens

December 27, 1916

A correspondent writes: When the open-air wards at Dollis Hill House Hospital, designed by Mr A Saxon Snell were opened for soldier patients last July, doubts were expressed as to their salubrity and comfort in winter. A visit to the hospital, even under the present wintry conditions, showed the value of the open-air principle when applied with certain modifications that have been absent from some examples of military hospitals without windows.
The huts are made of asbestos sheets in wooden frames, with rubberoid roofing. There is aso an open verandah ward. One hut has a south-east aspect, and the other, with the verandah, faces due south. Coke stoves provide the heating, and protection from the weather is given by verandahs 6ft wide with glazed roofs and sides, but quite open in front, though in extreme and boisterous weather and during evening and morning dressings on winter days, further protection is afforded by sailcloth screens.
Patients transferred from the Endell-street Military Hospital, to which Dollis Hill House is auxiliary, quickly lose their pallor and regain their powers of sleep. Healing of wounds, clearing up of lung troubles, and restoration of what we called “tone” are also rapid.
Patients sit quite contentedly in the open-air huts, even when snow falls, although the recreation room in the main building stands is always available.

100 років тому

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/venice-in-wartime-75xm2jdjh

january 26, 1917

Venice in wartime

Venice has been attacked from the air 21 times since the outbreak of the war. In 1915 there were eight bombardments, last year 13. These were made either by daylight or when the moon defined the position of the city on its lagoon and canals. It seems that some attempt has been made to aim at specific points — the arsenal, the station, the cotton mill — except during the violent assault which followed the fall of Gorizia, when bombs were sprinkled freely all over the town; but, in any case, the height at which the aeroplanes fly makes the incidence of the bombs a matter largely of chance. As to actual damage, it is surprising that there has been so little. Many of the bombs fell in the water and were comparatively harmless, but neither the Venetians nor their enemies can tell what precious monument may not be sacrificed in some future raid. The raid of October 20, 1915, demolished the roof of the Scalzi Church, near the railway station, with the ceiling by Tiepolo representing the Translation of the Holy House. Though the fresco was not one of Tiepolo’s finest works, it can never be replaced. On August 9 of last year incendiary bombs were used, and the roof of S Maria Formosa, the Shrine of Palma’s Sta Barbara, was completely burned, except for a fragment over the north transept. The August attacks wrought the greatest havoc, but on September 4 an incendiary bomb fell in the Piazza, only a few yards from the facade of S Marco. This naturally roused great alarm for the safety of the Ducal Palace and the Basilica. The bronze horses from the facade of S Marco are stabled in the Atrium, and covered with sandbags. The facade has disappeared behind a huge screen of timber. Inside, the church, on sunless days, is almost pitch-dark. The windows of the cupolas have been removed and, during a raid, are all left open. To prevent rain from entering, they have been filled with screens of rough, brownish cloth. The effect on the interior is most surprising. When the sun is shining the light coming through is of a soft, diffused yellow. This exactly hits the key of the mosaics, which are illumined by it, till each cupola shimmers and gleams like an inverted saucer of molten gold. It is a revelation of the mosaics of San Marco; they have never been seen like this before.