On gun-shot wounds of the extremities, requiring the different operations of amputation, with their after-treatment: establishing the advantages of amputation on the field of battle. To the delay usually recommended, &c. &c &c., with four explanatory plates / By G. J. Guthrie.

  • George James Guthrie
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On gun-shot wounds of the extremities, requiring the different operations of amputation, with their after-treatment: establishing the advantages of amputation on the field of battle. To the delay usually recommended, &c. &c &c., with four explanatory plates / By G. J. Guthrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    They were, from necessity, in want of cloth- ing ; and contagious, and other diseases, had commenced their destructive ravages among them. The nature of the country, the means of conveyance and other causes, did not ad- mit of the sick being collected in great hos- ] ital establishments ; and it was not thought advisable to do so, when it could be avoided, even where local circumstances permitted it. The sick and wounded, collected during the campaign, were especially in the charge of the hospital staff, whilst those who became sick after the arrival of the troops in quar- ters, were more immediately under the di- rection of their own surgeons, subject to a rigorous inspection, both of the military offi- cers and of the inspecting officers of the medical department. In this way every one was fully employed ; each strove, by atten- tion to duty, to render himself conspicuous; and the success of such a system was, as might be expected, truly great. It is a fact well ascertained, during the last century, that the retreat of a British army, for any dis- tance, has always been disastrous, and fol- lowed by an almost total disorganization of the troops, who, from disease, became in-