Manual of military hygiene for the military services of the United States / by Valery Havard.

  • Havard, Valery, 1846-1927.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of military hygiene for the military services of the United States / by Valery Havard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/314 (page 18)
    iniiiiicahlc diseases, disinfeetion, disi)()sal of refuse, sanitary laws, and vital statisties. ddie “something more” is the set of eonditions incident to the march, the camj), and battle, which greatly modify the cirenmstances and increase the difficulties met in the ai)i)lication of. sanitary procedures. A knowledge of public health thus falls far short of the re- quirements for the military ser\ iee, and ])hysicians called from civil life in time of war, without })revious military train- ing, find themselves not cpialified j)roperly to safeguard the health of the troo])s entrusted to their care. Functions of Medical Officers.—Miseonce])tions as to the functions of the Medical l)e})artment are not uneommon even in the army. Since, in time of i)eaee, the medical officer is best known through his relation to the sick, his more import- ant duties may be overlooked. TTis prime function is, in ])eace or war, not the cure, but the preveulinn, of disease. In war time the evacuation of the sick and wounded to the rear, that they may not encumber the army, is next in iin- ))ortanee. The care of the sick, essential though it is from ethical and ])olitieal considerations, thus assumes relative insignificance from the military standpoint. Military Failure Due to Preventable Diseases.—In all the wars of history (with the doubtful exce])tion of the Russo- Ja])anese conflict) much more disability and many more deaths have resulted from disease than from wounds, (hnn- ])aigns which .should have succeeded have frequentlv failed because of the utter breakdown of armies from preventable diseases, such as cholera, idague, typhoid, tyidius, small- ])ox, malaria, dxsentery, and yellow fever. The invasion