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 department, dental operating room and laboratory, X-ray room, chemical and biological laboratory, several wards for the treatment 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 operating room will be located amidships, extending the height of two decks and provided 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 expert care.
One of the important features of the proposed ship is the contagious disease compartment. This will be so designed as to be completely separated from the remainder of the ship and the latest methods of disinfection will be employed.
Lo, the Soya Bean! A Substitute for Meat, Fish and Fats
WITH all due respect to Western civilization and progress, we must nevertheless yield the palm to China for the production of the soya bean, a vegetable so full of promising possibilities that agricultural 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 substitute 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 conceded 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 dissolve out any oil that may be left in the meal before the left-over portion is consigned 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-chlorethylene. 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
