206 



Popular Science Monthly 



A Two-Million-Dollar Hospital Ship 

 for Our Navy 



PLANS for a hospital ship for the United 

 States Navy have been completed by 

 the naval constructors and officials of the 

 Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and 

 work on the new ship, which will be a 

 model of its kind, will soon begin at the 

 Philadelphia Navy Yard. Congress has 

 allowed $2,350,000 for its construction. 

 Although the exact dimensions of the ship 

 have not been determined, it is known that 

 she is to use oil as fuel and that a special 

 gyroscopic engine will be installed, to 

 reduce pitch and roll to a minimum. 



The ship will be equipped with the best 

 surgical instruments and paraphernalia 

 known to medical science. The several 

 hospital departments will consist of an 

 operating room, the out-patient depart- 

 ment, dental operating room and labora- 

 tory, X-ray room, chemical and biological 

 laboratory, several wards for the treat- 

 ment of acute and venereal diseases, 

 and a contagious disease compartment. 

 There will be the usual wards and special 

 accessory rooms for linen, wash rooms, 

 pantries and kitchens. The main opera- 

 ting room will be located amidships, ex- 

 tending the height of two decks and pro- 

 vided with every lighting facility. Special 

 rooms for the examination of eye, ear, 

 nose, throat and kindred ailments will 

 be provided in the out-patient department, 

 where patients may receive the most ex- 

 pert care. 



One of the important features of the pro- 

 posed ship is the contagious disease com- 

 partment. This will be so designed as to be 

 completely separated from the remainder 

 of the ship and the latest methods of dis- 

 infection will be employed. .WARRANT OFFICERS. 



CONTAGIOUSNESS 

 AND RECREATION 

 AUTOPSY R0OM\ ROOM 



Lo, the Soya Bean! A Substitute 

 for Meat, Fish and Fats 



WITH all due respect to Western civil- 

 ization and progress, we must never- 

 theless yield the palm to China for the 

 production of the soya bean, a vegetable 

 so full of promising possibilities that agri- 

 cultural experimental stations all over the 

 United States are concentrating attention 

 upon it. 



Milk from soya beans is no longer an 

 experiment but has become a marketable 

 commodity. It is sold in cans as a powder 

 or in liquid form. As a substitute for meat 

 and fish the experimenters say all that is 

 required is the co-operation of good cooks 

 to devise sufficient variety in preparation 

 of the beans. The oil is considered of 

 especial value. It may be used as a substi- 

 tute for linseed oil or may be hardened into 

 an edible fat suitable for cooking or even 

 for table use. The pulp, or what is left 

 over after the oil has been extracted, is con- 

 ceded to be a valuable cattle food. 



The only difficulty encountered thus far 

 in the experiments with the soya bean has 

 been in finding a suitable solvent to dis- 

 solve out any oil that may be left in the 

 meal before the left-over portion is con- 

 signed to the cattle. Naphtha has been 

 found to be good, but unless care is taken 

 to remove all trace of it from the meal the 

 new fodder loses its value as a cattle food, 

 for the cattle refuse it on account of the 

 smell. Another chemical which has been 

 found to answer the purpose is try-chlor- 

 ethylene. It is not offensive in odor nor 

 poisonous. Yet a dangerous reaction has 

 at times occurred when it has been used as 

 a solvent. 



How the space of the proposed two million-dollar hospital ship for the Navy will be apportioned. 

 The best surgical instruments and equipment known to medical sicence, as well as the latest 



