XV 



MEDICINE LOOKS AHEAD 



THE MEDICAL PROGRESS of the future is heralded by the amaz- 

 ing accomplishments of wartime medicine. 



Putting it statistically, look what happened to the wounded 

 in the early period of the war. 



More than 97 per cent of Navy and Marine wounded from 

 Pearl Harbor to March 31, 1943, have recovered, according 

 to the Office of War Information. Of all Navy and Marine 

 personnel wounded, only 2.6 per cent died subsequently. 

 Fifty-three per cent were returned to duty. Still under treat- 

 ment, as of March 31, were 43.5 per cent. Invalided from 

 service were 0.9 per cent. 



Incomplete data on our Army casualties up to December, 

 1942, showed a fatality rate of less than 4 per cent compared 

 with 7.7 per cent in the first World War. In the Solomons 

 fighting, deaths from abdominal wounds were less than 5 per 

 cent. In the first World War 80 per cent of all abdominal 

 wounds were fatal. In the original occupation of North Africa 

 the only deaths were those of men killed outright or so badly 

 wounded that nothing could have saved them. Four hundred 

 soldiers who were badly burned by flaming oil during the 

 landings were given blood-plasma transfusions. All but six 

 were saved. 



New Medical Kit 



When "Johnny Doughboy" gets his gun he also gets in- 

 oculations to make him immune to diseases which killed 



228 



