Source A: Extract from an article in the British Medical Journal by Robertson, on developments in Blood Transfusion
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Background information
Medical Journals existed well before World War One: The main journals were: The Lancet a weekly peer-reviewed, founded 1823. It published original research articles, review articles ("seminars" and "reviews"), editorials, book reviews, correspondence and case reports. The British Medical Journal a weekly, peer-reviewed medical journal, first published 1840. Highly respected for its high-impact original research articles and unique case-reports. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal is a weekly medical journal published since 1828 (now called the The New England Journal of Medicine. The American Medical Association Bulletin a medical journal published by the American Medical association, established in 1883. |
1 Describe key features of Medical Journals
One key feature of Medical journals were that they provide insight into new medical breakthroughs such as the innovations in facial reconstructive and brain surgery and blood storage for indirect transfusion.
A second key feature of Medical Journals is that they recorded the technological developments produced response to illnesses and injuries on the Western Front, such as the Thomas Splint, mobile X-ray machines and the Carrel-Dakin tubes for treating wounds and infection.
2a How useful are Medical Journals for an enquiry into illness, injury and treatment on the Western Front.
Medical journals are exceptionally useful for this enquiry, as they record new innovations on methods of prevention and treatment for the key illnesses and injuries of the Western Front, Trench, such as Fever, Trench Foot, Shellshock, responding to shrapnel, compound fractures and facial and head wound and blood transfusion developments. Articles were written by the leading innovators such as Lewisohn, Rous and Turner, Keynes and Robertson on their contributions to the development of Blood Transfusion improvements, Gilles on his facial surgery and Cushing on Brain Surgery.
However, it is important to note that, even in editions published between 1914-1918, some of the articles and other content is not directly about the war of innovations which were crucial to this location. Articles could relate to other medical developments, generally relevant to the civilian population. Furthermore, most articles have a necessarily narrow focus on the medical development that the scientist has been working on. Therefore, singular articles are of significant use to more focuses enquiries on particular problems or developments, but can only provide a more complete picture of medical developments, when used collectively, as a large body of evidence.