2. Hospital No. 2, at Abbassiah, near Cairo.
(Visited on January 2, 1917.)
This hospital, on the pavilion system, and arranged in accordance with the requirements of modern practice, is reserved exclusively for German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish prisoners of war. It is staffed by head doctor Wickermann, assisted by four English doctors. Some English Red Cross nurses and 18 Turkish orderlies attend to the sick and wounded. These nurses and orderlies are engaged only with treatment. The rough ward work and cleaning are done by native employés. The pavilions are built of stone and separated by intervals of 32-1/2 feet. The roofs are of cement. Along one side runs a covered gallery wherein beds and arm-chairs are placed for the open-air cure of patients for whom it is prescribed. The floor of the pavilions is a kind of linoleum made of sawdust and cement, and is covered with palm mats. The windows are large, and the cubic space per patient ample. The beds are arranged in two rows and have spring and stuffed mattresses. Blankets are not stinted. The rooms are scrupulously clean; and the hospital sterilising chamber serves to disinfect the clothes, which, after being washed and labelled, are stored in a wardrobe and handed back to the owners when they leave the hospital. The prisoners have no trouble over them. A large supply of things for the patients is kept in the laundry.
Clothing.—The hospital patients wear pyjamas like those of British soldiers; and, like the latter, convalescents wear a bright blue suit with white facings and a red necktie. Patients able to sit up have folding easy-chairs at their disposal.
Dressings.—The hospital drug department is well stocked. The wounded are supplied with surgical appliances, and with artificial limbs of the most perfect make.
The day before our visit 80 wounded prisoners arrived at the hospital from El Arish in an exhausted and emaciated condition. We saw each case receive the most suitable treatment. The apparatus most generally used for dealing with fractures consists of a metal frame with flannel strips stretched from side to side to form a kind of trough. When the broken limb is in position the apparatus is suspended from the ceiling by means of pulleys. We have never seen this ingenious arrangement in any German or French hospital; it seems to us to be a very practical idea and likely to prove of great benefit to the wounded. At the head of each bed is a temperature chart, a diet chart, and a clinical summary of the case.
Special Quarters.—The operating theatre is well arranged; a sterilising stove is heated by paraffin. In the wards for prisoners suffering from malaria the beds are enclosed by mosquito nets to prevent the anopheles mosquito infecting itself and then biting other patients or people of the neighbourhood. Two wards are kept for convalescent cases, who have a dining-room to stay in during the day.
Cases of venereal disease are also confined to separate premises.
The orderlies live in two comfortable tents in the hospital garden, one of which, is occupied by those on day duty, the other by those on night duty.
Hygiene.—The water is of good quality, supplied from the Cairo water system. The prisoners can use the well-equipped hot and cold baths at their pleasure. Invalids wash themselves, or are washed with the aid of bowls. Convalescents wash at the taps supplied for their use.
The latrines are on the Turkish plan, with automatic water-flush, and discharge into the town drainage.
Food.—The hospital management employs a contractor to do the provisioning. The food is prepared in the kitchen by 4 Egyptian employés. The dietary of the Turkish soldiers differs somewhat from that of the German and Austrian prisoners, in order to suit the palates of each. For example, the Turks prefer flat loaves, which are baked for them; while European prisoners get what is called English bread, toasted. Bulgarian curdled milk is prepared for dysentery patients, and the English doctors testify to its good effects.
An ice-box in each pavilion keeps such provisions as must stay there quite fresh. The diet for invalids is divided into full diet and milk diet.
1. FULL DIET.
- Breakfast: Bread; milk.
- Lunch: Meat stew; vegetables; rice; bread.
- Supper: Bread; soup; rice; milk.
- Extra, when ordered: Chicken; pigeon; rabbit; butchers' meat; lemons; eggs; cheese; curdled milk.
2. MILK DIET.
- Breakfast: Bread; milk.
- Lunch: Soup; bread; milk; rice.
- Supper: Bread; milk; sugar.
The quantities of food allowed to invalids are given below:
| Ordinary Diet. grm. | Milk Diet. grm. | Diet for Fever Patients. grm. | |
| Native bread (baladi) | 937 | 625 | |
| Beef | 115 | 100 | |
| Vegetables | 120 | ||
| Rice | 115 | 50 | |
| Milk | 200 | 800 | 1,200 |
| Fat | 20 | ||
| Sugar | 20 | 25 | |
| Salt | 15 | 5 | |
| Pepper | 3 | 1 | |
| Onions | 20 | ||
| Tomatoes | 10 |
We examined all these provisions and found them to be excellent in quality.
Sickness.—Sick prisoners are transferred from the camps to the hospital in specially fitted motor vehicles. The English doctors without exception praise the patience and brave endurance of pain shown by the Turkish prisoners. The cases treated in the hospital up to January 2, 1917, the date of our visit, are analysed below.
| Turks | Bulgarians | Germans | |
| Tuberculosis | 27 | 0 | 0 |
| Bacillar dysentery | 37 | 3 | 2 |
| Malaria | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| War wounds | 74 | 2 | 4 |
| Anaemia and weakness | 30 | 12 | 5 |
| Various | 96 | 5 | 0 |
| Totals | 267 | 22 | 11 |
There is no epidemic disease in the hospital.
Deaths.—Sixty-six Turkish prisoners died in the Abbassiah hospital between August 8, 1916, and January 1, 1917.
| From | Dysentery | 45 |
| " | Tuberculosis | 9 |
| " | Beri-beri | 1 |
| " | Malaria | 1 |
| " | War wounds | 9 |
| " | Typhoid fever | 1 |
| 66 |
In addition, one German prisoner died of pneumonia. As regards deaths from dysentery, most of the prisoners attacked by the disease came from the Hedjaz, and were in a seriously weak and exhausted condition.
Turkish prisoners are prepared for burial in the manner prescribed by their religion. They are buried in a Moslem cemetery. British soldiers from the garrison pay them the last honours, and the prisoners are represented at the cemetery.