The Exposition in Its Medical Aspects

THE Pan-American Exposition has been in operation for four months and now has become familiar to a vast number of people, either by personal visitation or through oral and written accounts of what has been seen and described by visitors.
     That the verdict of this vast throng of witnesses is one of approval may be observed in the steadily increasing attendance, the totals, per diem, jumping from thousands numbered in the forties during the first week in August, to those bordering on the eighties in the last week of the scorpion month. This is a gratifying condition, but it should be increased to the hundred thousand a day mark for the next two months, and we have no doubt these figures will be reached.
     To the medical man there is much of special interest to be observed and studied at the fair, in addition to the vast exhibition of art work, machinery, agricultural material, colonial specialties and products, government displays and so on, to a never-ending accumulation of everything that can be raised or made by the hand of man. In the August issue of the JOURNAL we published a lengthy review of the medical and surgical side of the Exposition, written by the special correspondent of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, who presented the subject in an attractive and readable form, displaying the trained observer in every paragraph.
     We now present to our readers a similar review of the same field, written by the special correspondent of the New York Medical Record, who is an equally keen observer as well as writer. [130][131] There may be discovered some little repetition in these two accounts, but each presents his own ideas from separate viewpoints and, taken together, they will afford to physicians the best possible penpictures of the medical features of the exposition. We feel sure they will be read with interest, and we cannot urge the exposition too strongly upon the attention of all physicians who desire to be entertained, instructed, and amused during a pleasant vacation.
     The Medical Record’s article is taken from its issue of August 17, 1901, and is as follows:

NOTES ON SOME OF THE MEDICAL FEATURES OF THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION.

     There is much in the Exposition at Buffalo to attract and hold the attention of scientific and medical men. A person desirous of viewing thoroughly and of studying with some care the numerous exhibits exemplifying progress in medicine and science, will not only need to have a considerable amount of time at his disposal, but will also find his task greatly facilitated if he has a knowledge of the location of the features of interest.
     Upon entering the West Amherst Gate the first building that strikes the view is the Emergency Hospital, the general plan and functions of which were described at length in the Medical Record some three months’ [sic] ago. It may nevertheless be mentioned that its province is wholly restricted to medical work, that serious cases are transferred to institutions outside the grounds, and that no patient is permitted to remain overnight. The building contains twenty-six beds, and is excellently equipped in accordance with the latest methods of sanitary science. The medical director of the exposition, Dr. Roswell Park, looks after its administration and with Dr. Vertner Kenerson, the physician directly in charge, visits the institution daily. The house staff is composed of six young medical men who take duty in turn, two at the same time. The nursing staff comprises four nurses. There is also in the service of the hospital an automobile ambulance in charge of medical students of the University of Buffalo.
     The hospital during the three months of the Exposition’s existence has treated upwards of 3,000 cases, the majority of which have been medical. It is satisfactory to note that there have been but a few cases of a grave nature and that the occurrence of sunstroke and heat exhaustion has been remarkably rare. This fact when taking into consideration the prevalence of excessive heat all over the country at the end of June and at the beginning of July is decidedly noteworthy, and says volumes for the salubrity of Buffalo.
     By far the larger number of those who have made use of the hospital up to the present time have been women, while among the employees and temporary residents of the Exposition the [131][132] foreign element has supplied the bulk of the patients. The complaints have been characterised for the most part by their simple nature, and there has been no suspicion of anything resembling an epidemic. Probably the diarrhea and stomach disturbances to which the foreigners have shown themselves especially prone may be attributed to an unaccustomed mode of living, and perhaps to injudicious eating and drinking. On the whole, however, the health of the Exposition inhabitants has been highly satisfactory, as has been also the health of the visitors to the great fair.
     Those who are responsible for the management and supervision of the Emergency Hospital must be commended for the admirable manner in which their duties have been carried out, and they can lay the flattering function to their hearts that their work has been well appreciated by the general public.