Hand-book for the military surgeon : being a compendium of the duties of the medical officer in the field, the sanitary management of the camp, the preparation of food, etc. : with forms for the requisitions for supplies, returns, etc. : the diagnosis and treatment of camp dysentery, and all the important points in war surgery, including gunshot wounds, amputation, wounds of the chest, abdomen, arteries and head, and the use of chloroform / by Chas. S. Tripler and George C. Blackman.

  • Tripler, Chas. S. (Charles Stuart), 1806-1866.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hand-book for the military surgeon : being a compendium of the duties of the medical officer in the field, the sanitary management of the camp, the preparation of food, etc. : with forms for the requisitions for supplies, returns, etc. : the diagnosis and treatment of camp dysentery, and all the important points in war surgery, including gunshot wounds, amputation, wounds of the chest, abdomen, arteries and head, and the use of chloroform / by Chas. S. Tripler and George C. Blackman. 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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    wet clothes, if it can be avoided. The men always carry a change in their knapsacks. If they get soaked on a march, let them put on at least a dry shirt and drawers, after their tents arc pitched, and dry their wet clothes by their camp fires. A ditch should always be dug around a tent, sufficient to carry olF any rain that may fall, so that the tent floor may be dry. In selecting ground for a camp, unless uncontrollable strategic reasons compel, low moist ground is always to be avoided, no matter how attractive it may look. A dry gravelly soil is always to be preferred. Before determining upon the ground, a spade should be sunk a foot or more, to ascertain whether it is sufficiently drained to make it safe for the men to sleep on. For obvious reasons, tho vicinity of marshes, particularly the leeward side of them, should be avoided, if possible. When the camp is to remain more than a week, in the same place, bunks may be readily made for the sick, by driving forked stakes into the ground at the corners, laying side pieces in the forked ends, and then making transoms of the staves of flour barrels. It is ad- visable to do this whenever practicable. If men are well encamped and the camp well policed, the sick list will be very much di- minished. Vaidy remarks, upon this point, that during a campaign one can not calculate upon less than 10 per cent, of sick, and fear- fully more if badly encamped, badly provisioned, defeated, etc. The subsistence of the men is a matter of the greatest import- ance, as regards quality, quantity, and mode of preparation. The importance of a full stomach to a soldier, has always been recog- nized. Frederick the Great, remarked, a soldier's courage is in his stomach. A prudent general will always feed his soldiers be- fore fighting, if he has the means. Men insufficiently fed fail, as soldiers, and more readily succumb to morbific influences. Both body and mind show the effects of a poor diet. The U. S. Army ration, however, is all sufficient for the men, and, if well cooked, will keep them healthy and vigorous. The medical officer should inform himself upon the principles of cooking the articles compos. ing the ration, so that he may be able to instruct the regimental cooks upon this important point. Dr. Taylor, the principal medical officer of the British Army, in the Crimea, has remarked, that since he has turned his attention to it, he thinks a competent surgeon should know how to cook, and that he should learn it in the first part of his medical education. Beef and pork are the animal parts of the regular ration. In the