A manual of military surgery : for the use of surgeons in the Confederate States Army; with explanatory plates of all useful operations / By J. Julian Chisolm.

  • Chisolm, Julian John, 1830-1903.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of military surgery : for the use of surgeons in the Confederate States Army; with explanatory plates of all useful operations / By J. Julian Chisolm. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    carded. The trousers should be of good, heavy woollen material, made also free for the easy play of the limbs. When the bottoms are faced with leather or enamelled cloth, it is found a great protection in bad weather, and also from the dews, keeping the legs dry and warm. Flannel shirts, coming well down upon the thighs, and drawers of the same material, are of great hygienic utility, and should form a portion of the dresa of every soldier, whether he has been accustomed to wear flannel or not. In winter they retain the animal heat and support the healthy function of the skin, while in summer they absorb more readily the excess of perspiration which occurs under severe exercise. While agreeable to the wearer, they prevent sudden arrests of perspiration, and are thus a protection against diarrhoea and dysenteiy, which are so fatal to armies. These should be furnished in sufficient num- bers to enable the soldier to change his shirt when he has been exposed to rain, as he may thus prevent pneumonia and bronchial affections. In the French service, where flannel underclothing is not in such constant use as in the English and American service, every soldier carries a band of flan- nel, with which he envelopes his abdomen, as a safe- guard from abdominal affections. Baudens, one of the surgeons-in-chief of the Crimean service, speaks of this band as essential to the health of the troops, and, at the same time, refers to the much better and more convenient protection which the English flannel shirt gives to the men. The liability of losing the flannel girdle, and its very partial protection, is a serious ob- jection to its use. For similar reasons, heavy socks should always be given to soldiers, as they retain warmth to the feet—which, being at the greatest dis- tance from the centre of the circulation, are least