CARRIER PIGEONS AND THE COUNTRY PRACTITIONER (1900)

[摘要] Seventy-five years ago telephone service was not yet available in many parts of the United States. The editorial below offered a practical solution for the physician who practiced in areas where phone service was not available. The solution will surprise many of our younger physicians.The perfection and cheapness of the long distance telephone and its consequent instillation in many country neighborhoods have done much to lessen the anxiety, if not the labor, of the country doctor. As the greater part of our country, however, is as yet unprovided with telephone service, a practical suggestion in regard to the use of carrier-pigeons which we find in the recent number of the Gazette des Hòpitaux may prove of value to some of our readers. The writer, after having trained a number of pigeons, leaves one or two at the house of the patient to be dispatched with a message should an emergency arise, or to state the morning and evening condition in a critical case. This means of communication gives the patient a sense of security and often serves to lessen the labors of the physician. So well satisfied is the doctor with this that he has established a station in each of the villages in his neighborhood so that he may be promptly summoned for new cases. He finds that he can leave two pigeons, always of the same sex, in a post for about a week. The longer the birds have been absent, the more quickly do they return.

[学科分类] 儿科学