Robert Jackson, M.D., late inspector-general of army hospitals / [Le Roy Crummer].

  • Le Roy Crummer
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Robert Jackson, M.D., late inspector-general of army hospitals / [Le Roy Crummer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    * {Reprinted from The Military Surgeon for February, 1922) [ ROBERT JACKSON, M. D., LATE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF ARMY HOSPITALS By LE ROY CRUMMER, M. D., Omaha (With four illustrations) WHILE stationed at Camp Greenleaf in 1918, as instructor in the School of Military Medicine, I found by chance in an old bookshop in Chattanooga, “A Treatise on the Fevers of Jamaica, with Some Observa¬ tions on the Intermitting Fevers of America, and an Appendix, contain¬ ing Some Hints on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers in Hot Climates. By Robert Jackson, M.D., Philadelphia, 1795.” As I sat on the cool porch of my lecture room, where I could watch my colleagues drilling in the heat of the parade ground, it was a great delight to read from Jackson’s book,^ a century and a quarter old, such observations as these: Exercises which might inure the body to hardships, have not been sufficiently enforced. . . . But as I have just mentioned, that spirituous liquors have little claim to be considered among the number of those things which con¬ tribute to the preservation of health. . . . It would be proper perhaps that the surgeon reviewed the men daily. . . . Round white hats would be the most proper covering for the head; and dowlas might be substituted with advantage in room of the thick cloth of which the coats are usually made. There can be no grounds for supposing that a soldier will not fight as well in dowlas as in scarlet: and there is certain proof that he will perform duties, which require exertion, with greater safety and effect, as the nature of his clothing will preserve him cooler by some degrees. ... In the present rage for military shew, it will be a difficult task to convince men to lay aside an uniform, which adds much to the brilliancy of his appearance. . . . I should incur a charge of presumption, perhaps of ignorance, did I attempt to point out the exercises which are the most proper for the forming of soldiers. Those only which contribute to the preservation of health belong to this place. I may however remark that the essen¬ tial part of the art of disciplining troops consists in imparting senti¬ ments of heroism and virtue to the minds of the men, and improving the exertions of their limbs, and in acquiring knowledge of the correspond¬ ence of their exertions when called into action. If I durst take so great