Items related to Introductory Lectures to a Course of Military Surgery;...
Introductory Lectures to a Course of Military Surgery; Delivered in the University of Edinburgh - Softcover
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830. Excerpt: ... LECTURE IV. In introducing to your notice the subject of military hospitals, and attempting to trace the successive steps by which we have been led to the formation of establishments considered so indispensable in the armies of modern Europe, it is much to be lamented that we possess little or no detailed information regarding the provision made for the treatment of the sick and wounded in former times. It is certain that ancient Rome, however magnificent in other respects, had no houses into which sick persons were admitted in order to be taken care of and cured. Diseased people were, indeed, carried to the temple of Esculapius, and there waited for a cure; but it does not appear that any preparations were made for their accommodation, or any professional means employed in their treatment: those nui merous benevolent institutions for the indigent and sick, which do so much honour to modern times, were first introduced by Christianity. The care of procuring the necessary assistance to those sick persons who can expect no help and attention from individuals, belongs to the police, and ought at all times to have been provided for by rulers and sovereigns; but, in the oldest periods, it appears they had too much to do in administering justice, and securing the state against hostile attacks, to be able to attend to this necessary establishment. Although, in many ancient nations, the soldiers served voluntarily, and without pay, in the hope of acquiring by plunder a sufficient compensation for the expenses, labour, and dangers to which they were exposed in war, yet it remained a duty incumbent on the government to provide for soldiers incapable of further service, and destitute of support,--a duty enjoined no less by the dictates of humanity, than by political...
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