Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Gunshot injuries / by Sir Thomas Longmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
694/764 page 648
![Modele de Tire-balle dont on peut construire sept didereuts instruments .to par 0. de Mouij, M6d. Militaire de 2e claase de I'armee dos Pays BasMaes'' tric-lit, 1866. It lucludes fifteen drawings, showing: the manner of adapting tha lustniment to tlie various uses for which it has teen designed. A specimen of Dr. Moiuj's instnuHent is in the Mus. of Mil. Surg, at Netley. Constitutional treatment, note 35,2J('ge 382, _ The pernicioiis influence on the British troops of the three montks' residence in Bulgana hus been fully unfolded by my colleague Professor Aitkeu in a paper which wll be found in vol. xl. of the ' Medico.-Ohii'urgical Transactions' In It he has shown that tlie percentage of deaths in the same diseases was inl variably greater, in a marked degree, during the first seven months of the Oriniean War among the troops who had resided in Bulgaria, than it was amon.r the troops who came direct to the Crimea from England or elsewhere The same results were observed in the cases of injuries. The ratios of deaths to the total adimssinus for injuries were 19-1 per cent, among those men who had formed part ol_ the iorce in Bulgaria; but only 13-7 per cent, among those who had served in the Grimea only. The ratios of invaliding to the admissions for in- juries wore 45-] percent, among tliose who had been in Bubwia- only '>0-4 per cent, among those who had served in the Orimea only. 1)^ Aitken's paper 38 well worthy of attentive study by all medical oliicers who are interested in tracing the causation of disease and mortality among bodies of troops Those who passed through the three hot and depressing months in BuI'mria, durino- which the army wn-s quartered in tliat unhealthy country, will not need to be reminded how imporlant an item in the long list of agents, which made that residence so constitutionally hurtful to the troops, was the unnutritious quality ot the rations issued to the men, the unskilful manner in which they were ordin- arily cook(:>d, together with the general absence of vegetables and other necessary dietetic adjuncts. Had no other cause for deterioration of bodily health existed, the indigestible diet of the troops in Bulgaria and the deficiency'in certain classes of aliment would alone liave sufliced for bringing the health standard so low as to render the men prone to any disease that circumstances might favour, and materially to allect the mortality and invaliding results of injuries among them. _ Note 36, page 388.—It is never to be forgotten that the study of practical hy- giene IS as important for surgeons as it is for sanitary officers. The province of practical hygiene is not limited to the preservation of health and to warding off disease ; if it were, its interest would be much lessened so far as surgical injuiies are concerned. It is equally its province to put men in the best state of prepara- tion for repairing the injuiies, and recovering from the diseases to which they, especially soldiers, are liable to be subjected. In proportion as practical hyo-ieiie has been attended to, so mil the treatment of injuries be simplified, and the death and invalKliiig rates be lessened ; in proportion as it has been neglected, so will the diihcullies ot treatment be increased, and the death and invaUding rates mount higher. Army medical officers should especially keep themselves in con- stant famiharity with the science and practice of hygiene as taught in the in- valuable work on the subject by my late distinguished colleague Dr. Parkes. i\Vfl 37, pnfjc. 389.—Diu-ing the Civil War in the United States, the Volun- teer Aid Societies supplied enormous stores of antiscorbutic articles for the use of the sick and wounded in the military hospitals. They consisted of dried apples, prunes, and other fruit; apple preserve, pickled tomatoes, tamarinds, lemons, oranges, lemon juice and lemonade, porter, &c. Such articles are of great value • when Irdsh fruits and vegetables are not procurable. They are far superior, as anti- scorbutics, to tlie dried potatoes and vegetables which are issued in large quanti- ties in Europe and are rarely relished, however prepared, by soldiers. Treatment of secondary hcetnorrhage, note ZS,page 399. ' Guthrie's Commentaries,' London, 1853, p. 68.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21511421_0694.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
