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

  • Gordon, C. A. (Charles Alexander), Sir, 1821-1899.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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    their charter in the field.”* Still, however, a sufficient number of medical men did not take seivice in the army to meet its require- ments, and when in 1641 the great rebellion in Ireland occurred, it had to be enacted that the justices, &c., were “ to raise as many men by impress for soldiers, gunners, and chirv/rgcom as might be approved by his Majesty and both Houses of Parliameut.”-f* Ho details are available as to the condition of army surgeons during the Commonwealth, although from the great care mani- fested by Cromwell for his troops when sick and wounded, it is fair to presume that he was disposed to appreciate at their worth the surgeons who attended them. In 1655, the surgeons of companies were abolished,]; and by warrant dated 1st January, 1686, it was enacted that the pay of a chirurgeon of an infantry regiment should be 4s. per day, and of liis mate 2s. U. Still, none but what may really be looked upon as the scum or dregs of the profession cared to enter the army, and it so happens that we have handed down to us in the pages of the London Gazette for 1689, not only a description of the personal appearance of the surgeon of what is now the 22nd Eegiment, but a statement of the money value attached to him. The Gazette alluded to contains an advertisement to this effect :§ “ Eun away, out of Captain Soames’ Company, in his Grace the Duke of Horfolk’s Eegiment of Infantry, Koger Curtis, a Barber-surgeon; a little man, with short, black hair, a Ettle curled; round visage, fresh-coloured; in a light-coloured cloth coat, with gold and silver buttons, and the loops stitched up with gold and silver; red plush breeches, and white hat.” The advertisement then proceeds—“ Whoever will give notice to Francis Baker, the agent of the same regiment, in Hatton Gardens, so that he may be secured, shaE have tioo guineas reward! ” Hospital establishments would seem to have been at as low an ebb as the surgeons at this time. The absence of suitable accommodation for sick soldiers was frequently commented upon by writers of the period. So great was the difficulty said to be, in most regiments, in procuring a hospital for their sick that a clause in the JMutiny Act for that purpose was said to be much wanted. For want of some such regulation the most exorbitant demands were often made for the most Avretched Brose, quoted by Fonblanque, p. 33. t Military Miscellany, p. 15. t Royal Gommissiou Report, 1858. § Chevers’ “ Moral and Social Couditiou of the British Soldier,” p. 49 ; quoted from Grose,