Address to the students of St. Thomas's hospital / delivered at the opening of the session, October 1st, 1874 by William Mac Cormac.

  • Mac Cormac, William, Sir, 1836-1901.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the students of St. Thomas's hospital / delivered at the opening of the session, October 1st, 1874 by William Mac Cormac. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    ( 24 ) the Surgeon-General of the Saxon army told me that immediately after the battle of the i8th there were 10,000 wounded men, chiefly the picked soldiers of the Prussian Guards, under his immediate charge with but a small staff of assistants. Never shall I forget the events of what may well be called a second Waterloo, as fought before Sedan on the ist of September, 1870. I had reached the place the day before, with the intention of joining MacMahon's army and the front. Not a soldier was to be seen in the entire fortress. Then, during the night, arrived the French Emperor, almost unattended. The battle, which lasted the entire day, began next morning at early dawn; but ere the day was spent 120,000 fighting men, half-starved, demoralised, and in retreat, were to be seen tumbling one over another into the small town. Next morning, when the news was known, we heard the shouts of victory from the conquering hosts outside the walls. We saw them muster to salute their leader, the Prussian King, while the French legions were shortly after marched to German prisons. A startling page it was in the world's history. How many wounded French there were I really know not, but they filled the houses, the churches, the theatres, while hundreds lay scattered about the roads and fields untended where they fell. During that eventful day I and those who were along with me had to deal with a thousand or more of badly wounded men. A more painful feeling of the little value of life at such a time, of the utter impossibility of coping
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