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from any of the numerous police-alarm telephone boxes, where a signal-bell communicates with
the nearest station, and on the receipt of the call the patrol waggon at such station is at once
sent to the spot indicated.
There are at present thirty-four police stations and thirty-one patrol waggons in this city,
and several hundred call-boxes. Every policeman, and some private persons, have a key of the
call-boxes ; a key is kept for public use at a drug store nearest adjacent to the box.
Each patrol waggon is supplied with a stretcher, medicine-chest, and instruments and
appliances for the relief of the injured, and useful instructions and directions are issued to the
officers in charge of the waggons for the immediate treatment of the most general and serious
injuries. On arrival at the spot the first means of relief are taken, if necessary, by the police
officers in charge of the patrol waggon in accordance with these directions, and if the injury is
such that the person cannot be moved from the spot where found without danger, the waggon is
sent for a doctor.
If the injured person is unknown, or insensible, he is taken to the County Hospital. At the
request of the injured person he can be taken to any other hospital, or his own home. There
are also three emergency hospitals in different parts of the city. No charge is made for the
transport services rendered.
Besides the patrol waggons there is one ambulance waggon, lately presented to the city by a
lady, which is also under the charge of the police, and it is expected shortly there will be four
more waggons presented by private persons.
New Orleans.
The ambulance service of New Orleans is under the direction of the administrators of the
Charity Hospital (who are appointed by the Governor of the State), and has been in operation
for a little over five years.
The headquarters of the ambulance department are in a spacious and well-constructed
building situated almost immediately opposite the hospital gates.
Its equipment is as follows—three waggons, seven horses, two drivers, two stablemen. Two
resident students are on duty for twenty-four hours, and accompany the ambulance waggon upon
a "call." Should a second "call" occur before the return, the next two students for duty
accompany the ambulance.
The waggons are covered four-wheel vehicles, each drawn by a pair of horses. On the floor
is a spring leather-covered bed which can be drawn out horizontally, and is fitted with handles
and adjustable iron legs. This can itself be used as a stretcher in very bad cases, and there is a
portable canvas stretcher besides, made in two pieces so as to be easily withdrawn from under a
patient.
Each waggon stands ready provided with a medicine-chest containing the remedies usually
required in cases of poisoning, burns, scalds, &c., chloroform hypodermic preparations, and
restoratives. Also a stomach-pump, tourniquets, bandages, plaster, and all requisites for checking
haemorrhage and sewing up wounds.
The horses stand in stalls at each side of the waggon, their harness so arranged over the pole
that it can be immediately adjusted. In front of the driver's seat is a gong, which can be struck
in the streets as a signal to clear the way.
The "calls" are usually by telephone. There are many public telephone offices all over the
city, and in its business portions, where accidents most commonly occur, private means of communication
in this way are readily available, as no one would grudge the use of his instrument.
The "call" goes into the library of the Charity Hospital, where it is verified and any special
particulars obtained. Then it is wired over the way. I will suppose that it comes during the
night. By one electric action a gong is sounded in the ambulance station and in the bed-room of
the students on duty above, the chains of the horse-stalls drop, a trap in the ceiling opens,
and the officers on duty slide down a polished steel shaft just behind the waggon, which by the
time they can do so, is harnessed and ready to start. The average time between the striking of
the gong and the departure of all concerned upon their mission is fifteen seconds. They have
gone forth in ten.
The route is given by intersection of streets thus: "Carondelet and Poydras." (An equivalent
might be, "Fleet and Chancery," meaning corner of Fleet-street and Chancery-lane.) Nearly
all the streets in New Orleans run either parallel or at right angles to each other at intervals;
(known as " blocks ") of 100 yards.
When the ambulance arrives on the scene of the accident the students do all that is immediately
required for the patient, and he is taken either to the hospital for regular treatment or to
his own house, in which case, if he be able to pay it, a charge from 2 to 10 dollars is made
according to circumstances, or from 8s. 4d. to £2 1s. 8d. In this way many persons who have
been poisoned by accident or malice (and both causes are frequent), who have received wounds or
injuries causing serious loss of blood or prostration of the system, who are suffering from fits
(easily mistakeable for drunkenness), and other causes calling for immediate medical attendance,
owe their lives to this admirable service.
Copenhagen.
According to the instructions for the executive police of Copenhagen, it is the duty of the
police patrol, in cases where any individual is attacked by illness in the streets, or is otherwise
found to be in a helpless condition, to render immediate assistance, and, if necessary, take steps
to call medical aid to the spot as soon as possible, or else to have the person carried either home
or to the hospital. This instruction is of daily application in cases of sickness or injury in the
streets, the persons being in most instances conveyed to the various hospitals of the town, the
usual means of conveyance being cabs.
In the year 1886 there wa3 founded in the town by a number of private individuals the
society known as "The Society of Medical Watch Stations," the object of which is to insure to
the inhabitants access to medical help in the; night-time, when occasion may require, and to
provide materials for temporary surgical appliances, and for the convenient transport of injured
persons, whether by day or night. This society caused to be established in April, 1887, with
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