View report page

25
Breslau.
In Breslau the life-saving service is in the hands of the fire brigade which possesses six firestations
in the town, of which one, in the inner circle of the town, serves as a centre. The hospitals,
police stations, military guard houses etc., are all telephonically connected with this centre.
A large number of members of the fire brigade are trained in first-aid and divided
amongst the six stations. There is also an accident station erected by a private association.
In the town hospital are six hospital waggons of which two are always ready with horses
harnessed from the town stables. The above-mentioned institutions as well as the fire-call
apparatus are all at the disposal of cases of accident, even in the night. As soon as an accident
is notified, the fire brigade starts for the place as if it were a fire and arranges at once the
sending of one or more ambulance carriages from the hospital. The service is so arranged that the
staff only render the patient capable of being removed, and obtain for him the nearest medical or
surgical treatment. There are also 12 accident call stations in different parts of the town which are
well fitted up, and in each first-aid can be rendered. Further, the sanitary corps of fire-saving union
has 10 places for dressing wounds whence help is sent out especially to fires. A new arrangement of
the system is to be introduced by which all the above-mentioned first-aid, etc., is to be under town
control and with money from town funds.
Bremen.
In Bremen the fire brigade has in a special manner organised the life-saving system. There
are five sanitary stations in connection with the fire stations, in which the service is maintained by
fire men trained as "Samaritans." Each station is provided with all necessary material, means of
removal (four vehicles), etc. These last are placed in the fire stations, and provided with horses from
that source. The service has done good work since 1890. The number of times aid was given has
continually increased, and in 1900-1901 reached 2,109. In only 113 of these was a medical man
called.
Altona.
In Altona also the fire brigade manages the life-saving service. The patients are conveyed as
quickly as possible to a hospital.
Hanover.
The fire brigade is not less useful in Hanover, though it is not concerned directly with lifesaving
service, but with the removal of the sick and especially cases of infectious disease. At the
present time there is a movement on foot for the rearrangement of the system by which life-saving
stations with alternating medical service as in Berlin are to be organised. In Linden, near Hanover,
an active Samaritan Society has arranged the life-saving system.
Konigsterg.
In Konigsberg the town fire brigade has undertaken the life-saving affairs and removal of the
sick. A carriage ready harnessed always stands at one of the fire stations waiting for a call, which
comes by public telegraph; two fire brigade "Samaritans" accompany the vehicle. At the police
stations there are cases for wound dressing and bandages. The removal of the other sick is undertaken
by the town authorities.
Frankfort-on-the-Main.
There is in Frankfort-on-the-Main a volunteer life-saving society, which has been at work
since 1891.
The society has life-saving stations; surgeon dressers give their services; and since last year a
new central life-saving station has been erected in the chief fire station. In this central station the
service is undertaken by medical men who follow each other in succession during the day, and during
the night one medical man is on duty. A medical union provides for the service being maintained.
The society gives instruction in first-aid to the officers of the police, of the post office, and other great
industries, factories, etc. The service of the life-saving society is now so arranged that immediately
after an alarm a carriage with a medical man and two surgeons leaves the station. The society has
also cases of life-saving apparatus in various institutions in the town, and it has also placed along
the banks of the Main lifebuoys to save drowning persons. In the little waiting rooms of the
tramways—by the main guard station—are two cases of bandages and a litter for public use, to be
obtained by day by the employees of the tramway company, by night by the officer of the main guard.
The society renders first-aid free.
Besides this there is in Frankfort a Samaritan Society, which was founded in 1898, and
proceeded from the Samaritan branch of the Frankfort cyclists. The society has now two stations,
the second of which was erected in 1900. It consists of a "medical service always ready," in which
a number of medical men take part. The superintendent is a surgeon dresser. The usefulness of the
stations has increased. They possess a carriage of their own, in which two litters are placed one
above the other; there is also room for five persons seated. These two associations are now to be
regulated and placed under the control of the town authorities and of the medical profession.
Munich.
The volunteer life-saving association in Munich was founded in 1894. The help given by the
society is restricted to actual need and only first-aid is afforded, so that the interests of the medical
men should in no way be prejudiced. In the station itself the service is performed by sanitary officers,
while for severe illness in private dwellings the medical men of the day from the hospitals are called
in, and these are specially warned only to render first-aid and not to continue the treatment. The
claims on the society have increased from year to year especially as regards the removal of the sick.
They possess three carriages as well as three litters, etc. The horsing of the carriages is only carried cut
[4]