404  Gleanings  from  the  Medical  Journals.  {^Augustffs™^ 
privates.  This  is  not  a  very  large  number  of  care-takers,  when  one 
realizes  that  in  times  of  peace  there  is,  in  most  communities  of  the 
Eastern  States,  an  average  of  about  500  unmenaced  persons  to  one 
physician  and  a  large  number  of  nurses. 
The  plan,  as  at  present  outlined,  is  that  the  rear  of  each  division 
of  the  army  will  be  provided  with  dressing  places  for  emergencies, 
to  which  those  wounded  would  be  immediately  brought.  Consid- 
erably farther  in  the  rear  there  will  be  an  ambulance  station,  where 
more  detailed  work  of  a  surgical  nature  may  be  done.  At  a  still 
greater  distance  from  the  field  will  be  three  hospitals  corresponding 
to  the  three  brigades  composing  that  division.  These  field  hospitals 
will  naturally  be  tents,  each  capable  of  affording  accommodations  for 
400  or  more  wounded.  A  large  number  of  ambulances  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  transportation  of  the  wounded  from  the  front  to  the  hospi- 
tal. During  action  the  medical  staff  takes  as  sheltered  a  position 
as  possible  in  the  rear  of  its  own  regiment,  in  order  to  better  pro- 
vide for  the  immediate  wants  of  the  wounded.  It  is  intended  that 
those  surgeons  who  work  directly  behind  the  fighting  line  shall  be 
provided  with  simple  drugs  for  the  relief  of  pain,  shock,  fainting, 
heat  or  exhaustion.  They  will  also  be  provided  with  such  surgical 
instruments  as  are  required  for  minor  operations. — Boston  Med.  and 
Surg.  Jour.,  May  12,  1 
TO  ABORT  ERYSIPELAS. 
Lobit  uses  a  10  per  cent,  iodoformed  or  iodoled  collodion,  with 
which  he  has  cured  twenty-five  cases  within  three  or  four  days. — 
Lem.  Med.,  March  30,  1898. 
RADIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  STOMACH. 
By  mixing  bismutum  subnitricum  with  the  food  and  beverages, 
Roux  and  Balthazard  have  succeeded  in  watching  the  contractions 
and  action  of  the  stomach  during  digestion,  with  the  fluoroscope, 
and  taking  a  series  of  radiographs  of  the  entire  process  in  dogs. 
— Deu.  Med.  Woch.,  April  7th,  from  Arch,  de  Phys.,  x,  p.  85. 
SODIUM  SACCHARINATE. 
The  above  is  claimed  to  be  one  of  the  best  intestinal  antiseptics 
to  date,  without  secondary  effects.  One  gramme  once  or  twice  a 
day  will  notably  diminish  the  number  of  bacteria  in  the  intestines, 
