Just received my July/August Discover magazine that had an article "Doctors Derailed". Here is a statistic: one in every 28 employees were injured on the RR and one in 399 died. It discuses how doctors learned to treat injuries that regularly occurred on the railroads (fingers, limbs, concussions, ruptured internal organs, etc). From this evolved rudimentary first aid packs with dressings and medicines (such as they were in early 1800s). Eventually RRs began opening private hospitals to treat injured workers and at the peak 35 were operating on various lines.
Can't link to article due to copyrights I am sure. But if you can go to your library, look at one in supermarket, mooch a copy off a friend, its a nice three page read.
