When British Forces extend over the top of the trenches on July 1 , 1916 , no one could have predicted the outcome . As the Sun set up on that first sidereal day of the Battle of the Somme , some 57,000 British men repose dead , wounded or dying on the battlefield in northern France . To mark the centenary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme , the Science Museum in London , has opened a new exhibition that brings together objects that highlight not only how mortal the First World War was , but also the innovation and forward motion in technology , skill , and medicine .
“ The shell and severity of offend in the First World War was completely unprecedented , ” explains Vikki Hawkins , curator of the exhibitionWounded : Conflict , Casualties and Care , to IFLScience . “ The aesculapian collection give a slenderly untold story , so rather than the masses who lost their lives , it bet at those who were wound and had to continue to be with their wound and what happened to them in the years after they returned home . ”
roue blood transfusion outfit from the First World War . Science Museum / SSPL
As soldiery were face with artillery they had never experience before , medico and medics where conversely have to handle wounds of an unprecedented nature and graduated table . Due to the mechanization of warfare , they were often in uncharted territory . Even if the men make it the hurt of cut down muscle and splintered bone , they then had to contend with blood loss and infection . Some of the most basic techniques , such as applying pressure and a compression bandage to stem the bleeding , were often the first line of discourse , but some Doctor were trying to develop more advanced , long - term treatments .
While stock transfusions had been around beforehand , it was really during the First World War that the proficiency was refined and pioneered . “ rip blood transfusion was not at the level that it would be capable to provide a substantial dispute until about 1917 , ” says Hawkins . “ We ’ve convey an example of one of the first 1917 rake blood transfusion set , and for the first time by mix the blood with sodium citrate , the medics were able to prevent the blood from clotting . ” This proved to be an priceless furtherance , as it meant that blood could be bank and stash away in cookery for the casualties from major battles , and as a consequence save countless lives .
The importance of profligate blood transfusion during warfare is something that has persist unchanged in the 100 years since the Battle of the Somme . “ It is fascinating how crucial blood blood transfusion is , ” explicate Hawkins . “ How in the First World War they were trying so hard to get roue transfusions closer and closer to the front air to give it to hoi polloi as presently as possible . ” Now , doctors have “ intraosseous drill ” - which shoot profligate and fluid directly into the bone - and couple on with a huge amount of blood store on the eggbeater , this permit medic to provide transfusions literally as soon as they are off the battlefield . “ The principles are just the same , it ’s just the technology that has change . ”
But doctors were not only have to process injuries of unparalleled scale of measurement , they were also forced to deal with those never before discover in battle . In April 1915 , chlorine gas was first used on the Western Front . Taken by everlasting surprise , the medical faculty were unsure what to do as patients arrive cat , coughing , and ab initio die in gamey numbers . Within days of the attack , which terrified the soldiers who had never experienced anything like it , the British Army post scientist John Scott Haldane to the front line to aid identify the accelerator pedal and how good to address its effects .
Haldane ’s oxygen apparatus adapted for four the great unwashed to use . Science Museum / SSPL
“ He actually discovered what the gas was from looking at somebody ’s button that had just been on an policeman ’s uniform . It had just been brush up the day before and was now completely tarnished , ” explains Hawkins . “ As a scientist he was aware that that could be because Cl was present . ” Haldane come back to London where he started experimenting with a squad , often using themselves as test field of study , gas the corridor , and delve deep in the university ’s land to allow them to see how the gas pedal dispersed .
After conduct these experimentation , Haldane realized that the most effectual way to care for men who had been gassed was to increase their blood oxygen immersion . This all resulted in him producing “ Haldane ’s O setup ” , a life sentence - save piece of equipment that was eventually stationed near the front lines to treat soldier as soon as possible . The one on display show one of these apparatus adapted for use by four separate people , and would have been attached to a cylinder of oxygen .
Yet it was n’t just the seeable wounds that soldiers were suffering from . In what was earlier called “ shell cushion ” , countless men during the First World War were impacted by what we now have intercourse to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) . When this first manifested itself on the battleground , often as symptoms including palsy , muteness , regurgitation , and tremors , there was little done to aid the men and little fellow feeling given . In fact , many men who are now thought to have been sustain from shell impact were appallingly executed during the warfare , accuse of cowardice and betrayal .
And when those who survived rejoin to England with these “ inconspicuous wounds ” , as the expo call them , some of the men were n’t necessarily plow any better . “ Because there was no standard treatment for men who had been exposed to warfare and who suffered shell shock absorber , some of them woefully were broadcast to psychiatric hospital , ” says Hawkins . But out of the spectacular rise in patient role meet PTSD – some 32,000 state of war pensions were given to those suffering shell shock – come the basis for modern genial health recitation that informs much of how multitude are treated today .
stilted eyes were in majuscule demand from those who lost their sight . Science Museum / SSPL
The expo culminates with a unretentive picture looking at how New soldiers have coped with PTSD . make in coaction with the organizationCombat focus , which itself start as a charity found to help First World War men suffer from shell shock adjust to life back home , the manpower featured are all warhorse from the recent conflict in Afghanistan . The cinema lend home how , despite the technological advances in the last 100 years , the impacts visit on man and women who serve has not .
“ The men in the movie have really mat that this experience of helping us curate that part of the exhibition is a agency of continuing their talking remedy , that babble out about their experience is really good therapy for them , ” explicate Hawkins . So rather than only remembering those who made the ultimate forfeit for King and for country , we should also take a moment to recall those millions of men who returned from the revulsion of the Great War with hurt both seeable and invisible .
amputee being rehabilitate with their artificial leg , 1915 - 1918 . Science Museum
