Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon.

  • Charles Alexander Gordon
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    117/132 (page 99)
    and he was the first who discovered tlie danger to health occa- sioned by the conveyance of potable water through leaden pipes. Three years afterwards another army surgeon—namely. Dr. John Bell—published his work on the means of preventing disease in the West Indies. In ] 792, Dr. Gordon, then Surgeon of the 13th Foot, published a series of rules for preseiwing the health of troops, many of which may still be consulted with profit. In 1796, Dr. Soramerville wrote on The Means of Preserving the Health of the Troops, on Clothing and Feeding them, and on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases. In 1801, Dr. Eollo published his remarks on the preservation of the health of soldiers. He gave reasons for objecting to the use of huts as hospitals in the West Indies, and he entered pretty fully into the entire question of site, construction, and administration of hospitals. Dr. Lempriere soon after him considered the same subjects, entering, moreover, into the various influences that affect the health of troops stationed in the AVest India Islands. Some years subsequently we meet with his name at Walcheren, issuing a series of rules, in conjunction with Borland and. Sir James McGrigor, with a view to protect the health of the troops ; rules of which it is narrated that, had they been fol- lowed, many lives and much money that were wasted would have been saved to this country. But, of all writers on hygiene as applied to troops, Eobert Jackson is, perhaps, now the best and most generally known. There is scarcely a point that bears upon the health, food, clothing, training, and exercises of the soldier on which, in his inestimable work, he did not touch. Dr. Luscombe, writing in 1821, gave expression to his views on the preservation of the health of the soldier; his remarks referring in turn to recruiting, clothing, diet, foreign service, camps, barracks, bedding, personal cleanliness, pay, and lastly, ^lut not least, to religious instruction. Dr. Millingen, about the same time, published a series of rules having reference to camps and bi^^ouacs, including their site, cleanliness, and general manage- ment. Dr. Hennen, in 1828, when yellow fever occurred °at Gibraltar, not only suggested measures of a hygienic nature for the prevention of th^ disease, but urged upon the military authorities the necessity on their part of using every practicable measure for arresting the threatened epidemic. This medical officer. 111 his work, laid down rules for the appropriation of space in hospital. Lastly, Sir George Balingall, in his work on Military Surgery, enters fully into all subjects that bear upon the preseiwation of health of the soldier. Boards of IIcalth.~The formation of boards of health was strenuously urged by Eobert Jackson, Sir James McGrigor, and Dr. Millingen. According to the former, they should be insti- I