Observations on ophthalmia and its consequences / by Charles Farrell, M.D.

  • Farrell, Charles, 1779-1855.
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on ophthalmia and its consequences / by Charles Farrell, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    and most effectual means are taken for accomplish- ing this. He is not allowed to procure food and raiment for himself, lest in his habitual prodigality- he should consume the funds allotted to this pur- pose. His officer takes to himself the charge of providing him with these necessary articles of life. He is not allowed to act, I might say to think for himself, lest the freedom of thought or of action should interfere with his obedience as a soldier. In a word, he has little of the employment, and none of the wants or cares, which conduce to re- flection and circumspection of conduct. He fears nothing but his officer's displeasure, and the heavy punishment annexed to military misdemeanours. By the heavy hand of military discipline only is he kept in order and in awe; and when he fancies he can escape this, as is almost natural to expect, he revels in the pursuits and enjoyments from which he was restrained. The British soldier, I am sorry to have occasion to say, is too prone to indulgence in the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. This vice, independ- ently of the direct injury it does to his health, and the series of moral evils it brings in its train, ex- poses him to many causes of disease. He often sleeps abroad in a state of intoxication, exposed to noxious exhalations, to the meridian sun, or the chilling air of the night; and if he be fortunate enough to escape confinement in the guard-house for this offence, he is consigned to his tent or