On military and camp hospitals, and the health of troops in the field : being the results of a commission to inspect the sanitary arrangements of the French Army, and incidentally of other armies in the Crimean War / by L. Baudens ; translated and annotated by Franklin B. Hough.
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On military and camp hospitals, and the health of troops in the field : being the results of a commission to inspect the sanitary arrangements of the French Army, and incidentally of other armies in the Crimean War / by L. Baudens ; translated and annotated by Franklin B. Hough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![disencumber onr field hospitals here. If it were neces- sary to demonstrate it by figures, I could find it in the afiiicting results furnished by the sick treated in the Crimea, during the last few weeks. Daring the last ten days, from the 20th to the 29th of Februaiy, a\ hich is a good sample of the same period for a long time back, 519 left the ambulances cured, and 873 died !! A comparison in the cases of typhus gives a still more terrible result. For every 27 cures we have 383 deaths, and yet, sir, typhus in its ordinary condi- tion^ although a serious disease, does not carry off more than a sixth of the sick. For exam])le, of 442 infirmary attendants attacked with typhus at Constantinople, only 42 died. These figm-es do not require comment; they loudly testify to the impotency of medicine, in the conditions found in the Crimea. Ought all the sick to be sent to Constantinople, or only a certain class ? My advice is, to ship off all the non-typhic patients, if their condition allows of it; they are the most numerous. Their departure will effect an immediate disencumbrance of the hospitals and allow all the energies and care of the surj^eons to be devoted to the untbrtunate typhic patients, who, retained in the Crimea, will no longer risk the fleet and the hospitals of Constantinople with the dangers of infection. If the weather continues favorable, it would be ad- visable to place the typhic patients in tents, pitched at distances of 15 yards apart, and, if our resources will permit of it, to instal only two patients in each tent; they shoiild not be allowed to lie on the ground, but be provided with camp beds, by this means they wotild be protected from the unhealthy influence of the lower stratum of the air; the bed clothing should be changed daily, and exposed to fumigating agents; whitewash the ground, fumigate, constant change of air, for I again repeat, contagious typhus must have pure air, constantly renewed, without which cure is impossible, You see, sir, military medicine is not very exacting, it can bend itself to the necessities of war; but the little we ask should be given without grudging.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21951780_0256.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
