Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Infirmaries, hospitals for invalids, field lazarettos. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![fore first occasion to make provision for its native soldiers •when disabled by service. As long as military men con- sisted chiefly of foreigners, who served during a certain pe- riod for pay and plunder, sovereigns believed that when a war was ended, they were no further indebted to these aliens ; they consequently suffered them to retire wherever they thought proper, and gave themselves nofurther trouble respecting them. In the last place, I shall here consider the question, Since what time have regular surgeons been appointed to armies? and lay before the reader the little I have been able to collect towards answering it. In the Trojan war they were indeed not known. At that period many of the principal heroes had acquired some knowledge of surgery, and, like the knights in the time of the crusades, undertook the office of assisting and curing the wounded1. Such persons in armies were particularly honoured, and considered to be of great value, as appears from what Idomeneus, speaking of Machaon, says: I*? rpos yap avr/p 7roWwv avTa^ios q,\\<ov. Medicus vir ruultis requiparandus aliis2. Yet the instance of Machaon shows how little care wras then taken of the wounded ; for Virgil makes him even, wrhose assistance must every moment have been necessary, mount into the wooden horse, and he was the first who came out of it3. There is reason to think that the armies in Homer, and until the introduction of Christianity, and the invention of gunpowder, had in every battle but few wounded, and always a much greater proportion of killed than in modem times. Hostile bands stood nearer to each other; all came • close Since that time large sums have been bequeathed for tire use of the hos- pital, and the buildings have been successively enlarged and improved. The indoor pensioners, of whom there are 2700 (which number is kept up by filling the vacancies«twice a month), are maintained, clothed, and lodged, having also a weekly allowance for pocket-money. By the act, 10 Anne, cap. 27, it is enacted that the seamen of the mer- chant service shall contribute equally with those of the royal navy; and that such of the former as may be wounded in the defence of property belouging to Her Majesty’s subjects, or otherwise disabled while cap- turing vessels from an enemy, shall also be admitted to the benefits of the institution. The money received from visitors and other sources is appro- priated to the support of a school, wherein upwards of 4000 boys have been (1838) educated, from the foundation of the establishment to the present time. There are also about 32,000 out-pensioners.] 1 Even Alexander the Great undertook this office, as Plutarch expressly](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22319578_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
