Observations on the diseases of the army / by Sir John Pringle, bart.

  • Pringle, John, Sir, 1707-1782.
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the diseases of the army / by Sir John Pringle, bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    discussion of those points would have too much inter- rupted the series of incidents, that were to be present- ed in this place at one view. I have therefore thrown most of the reasoning, re- sulting from the first part, into the second; in which, after havinar divided and classed the diseases common to a military life, I inquire into the causes of them, such, I mean, as depend upon the air, the diet, and other circumstances, usually comprehended under the appellation of non-naturals. And here I have ventured to assign some sources of disorders, very differently from other writers upon this subject. I have also shown, how little instrumental some other causes are, which have been hitherto thought to be the most productive of military distempers. Nor will this liberty, I hope, be condemned, when the opportunities, which I have had beyond others to make such remarks, are attended to; and when it is considered, that as natural know- ledge is daily improving, those who write last on sub- jects connected with it are most likely to be in the right. Among the chief causes of sickness and mortality in an army, the reader will little expect that I should rank (what are intended for its health and preserva- tion) the hospitals themselves, and that on account of the bad air, and other inconveniencies attending them. However, during the former war, one considerable step was made towards their improvement. Till then it had been usual, for the security of the sick (when the enemy was near) to remove them a great way from the camp, whereby many were actually lost before they came under the care of physicians; or, which was at- tended with equally bad consequences, if the hospitals were nigh, they were, for the same reason, frequently shifted, according to the motions of the army. But the