Report on the medical arrangements in the South African war / by Surgeon-General Sir W. D. Wilson.
- Great Britain. Army Medical Services
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the medical arrangements in the South African war / by Surgeon-General Sir W. D. Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
350/490 page 292
![Regimental arrange- ments. Sanitation, 292 and I was seldom under any anxiety as to the clearing of the field of wounded men. (10) The transport for all medical units was provided at the beginning of the campaign, and remained with them throughout, unless when a hospital became stationary for a time when, on my initiative, it was lent to the director of transport as a temporary measure. I am not in favour of medical transport being unalienable.* (11) Unless tents and equipment cannot be brought up, buildings such as are generally available in towns and villages, should not be used for hospital purposes, as no staff is strong enough to bear the subdivision this entails, such houses are often insanitary, and sick and wounded do much better, and are better looked after in camp than is possible in scattered buildings. If buildings must be utilised, churches and public buildings are to be preferred to private houses. Generai Remarks. It will now be convenient to deal more in detail with the medical arrangements, but before doing so, J] would premise that some of the suggestions made are put forward tentatively, as subjects of debate which deserve to be threshed out departmentally. Our organisation has been accused of lack of elasticity, and as being fettered by red tape, but a system that bore the strain of the unexpected change of base involved in the sending of an army to Natal where no preparations had heen made for them, and the local army medical resources were almost entirely absorbed in besieged Ladysmith, and where a battle of magnitude was fought within a month of the arrival of the pioneers of the army, is neither inelastic nor hide-bound. In proof of this it is only necessary to state that when the battle of Colenso was fought there was no general hospital in Natal, and that the wounded were collected from the field and comfortably housed in hospitals improvised for the occasion, with a rapidity, and, I think, suecess, unusual in war. Field Army. Tn some instances the place of the Royal Army Medical Corps Officer in charge of a unit was taken by a civil surgeon or an assistant surgeon Indian Subordinate Medical Department, but Royal Army Medical Corps Officers should be employed whenever possible. | The duties of the Medical Officer in charge of a unit are sufficiently obvious, and do not call for special comment, except that the prevention of avoidable disease in an army depends on the manner in which the sanitary duties of the unit are carried out. In this work the co-operation of the Commanding Officer, and the assistance of the Quartermaster and Company The only satisfactory sanitation on service is the regimental sanitation, Filters. Medical and surg cal equipment, embodied in Enclosure I. The Principal Medical Officer Division is the e nmnecting link. In large camps and occupation of towns a special Sanitary Officer should be appointed. Berkefeld filters were to have been supplied to units in the proportion of one per company, but very few battalions had their full complement, and it is doubtful how far those supplied were satisfactory. Ordinary South African water clogs the candle very quickly, and when these filters cannot be frequently and thoroughly sterilised, their efficiency, in a bacterial sense, is not above suspicion. . The medical equipment supplied to units was sufficient and satisfactory. The surgical haversa k should be large and roomy, and it might be simplified. It should coitaim iodotorm, morphia, dressings, and a flask of brandy. y | * Tagree. Medical transport should be, like all other, regimental transport.—R.B. + The fact is we are in danger of forgetting that when we had A.Q.M.G.’s and : ad with an army, they did work Which is essential but now sometimes overlooked, leer! 8 al & Ks ;](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32172874_0350.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
