Introductory lecture to a course of military surgery : delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1st May, 1850 / by Sir George Ballingall.

  • George Ballingall
Date:
[1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to a course of military surgery : delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1st May, 1850 / by Sir George Ballingall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/8 page 4
    necessary to maintain a line of fortresses, or strong posts, on its eastern frontier, numerous reinforcements were constantly called for. Hungary is, however, in many respects, one of the most unhealthy countries of Europe. Traversed by a thousand streams, pouring their tributary offer¬ ings into the slow rolling Danube, its surface is extremely moist, and the solar heat, operating on this surface during the day, is followed by dense dews and fogs during the night; hence miasmatic diseases prevail with a force and virulence un¬ known in other countries. The agues, remittents, and dysenteries of Hungary appear first to have made an extraordinary impression in 1566, or, according to another authority, in 1572, when the Emperor Maximilian the Second led. a numerous force to the banks of the Danube. Having encamped on a low humid island in the river, his troops very quickly sickened, and the majority were destroyed in a few weeks. From this period the frequent occurrence of sickness and mortality amongst the Austrian troops rendered it indispensable for the government to provide a suitable medical staff, and to devote particular attention to those diseases inci¬ dent to a military life. Accordingly we find that the first authors who devoted express treatises to the subject of military medicine were Austrian physicians, of whom we have a numerous list between the year 1664 and 1735; and the first person who appears to have undertaken the composition of anything like a complete treatise or manual of military medicine was “ Raymond Mindererus,” a physician of Augsburg, who had spent his earlier years in the Austrian army, and who is in some measure known to the profession by the prescrip¬ tion still occasionally bearing his name. In Austria is to be seen at the pre¬ sent day the Josephinum of Vienna, the most splendid institution in the world for the special instruction of army surgeons,—“ Schola Medico-Chirurgica militum morbis et vulneribus curandis sanandisque instituta.” In the capital of Prussia again we have a kindred institution, that of Frederick William the Second, at Berlin, destined by its royal founder u in the first place, to receive the surgical staff of the field hospitals which had acquired expe¬ rience in the war with France, and to preserve it to the country ; and, in the next place, to provide for the field hospitals in future a supply of well edu¬ cated surgeons/’ In France, various ordinances were issued between 1718 and 1747, contain¬ ing some dispositions favourable to the instruction of the young army sur¬ geons, and at the peace of 1763 Richard submitted to the Due de Choiseul, the minister at war, the propriety of requiring the army surgeons to give a regular account of their practice; and from that time forward, particularly since the ter¬ mination of the war with this country in 1815, the publication of the records of the military hospitals in France has gone on with a most commendable spirit and regularity, while we have in that country an admirable provision for the education of their army surgeons in the Hopitaux dTnstruction, established at Paris, at Strasbourg, at Metz, and at Lille. To France we are also indebted for some of the earliest systematic works in the department of military medi¬ cine, particularly those of Colombier, one of their most distinguished physi¬ cians, who, in 1778, gave to the public a general and valuable “ Treatise on the Health of Soldiers,” in seven volumes octavo. With reference to our own position, I may observe, that, while in other countries the whole profession may be said to be occupied in one train of in¬ quiry, the army and navy surgeons of Great Britain have special fields of experience, observation, and research, open to no other body of profes¬ sional inquirers. How fully the profession has availed itself of these oppor¬ tunities may be seen by a single glance at the list, which I have appended to my text-book, of works on the “ Diseases and Accidents of Soldiers and Sea¬ men,” published exclusively by medical officers in the service of her Majesty, or of the Honourable East India Company. But, while the profession has done much, the state has done little. While this country possesses (in the extent and variety of her colonial possessions) facilities for the improvement military and naval medicine beyond any other—aye ! beyond all others put
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3