To the Coast Rangers, on cleanliness.

  • Hatch, L. M.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: To the Coast Rangers, on cleanliness. 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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    were. The habits of a people during peace follow them during war; and ours have some which, working no in- juiy whilst they live scattered, are followed with deadly effects when they are crowded in camps. The habit of resorting to the woods instead of using privies, poisoned the air around our camps to a degree which can hardly be realized. The beautiful plain, befouled during the night and early morning, by men answering to the calls of nature upon it, became, at a later hour, the drill ground for regiments, every man of whom must have carried off portions of the filth on his own person. No wonder that on those plains the burial parties became larger, and the little mounds daily increased, beneath which were buried the hopes of families and friends. Neither were the habits of our men, as to personal cleanliness, better. Nor is it through the whole of our camps. Our soldiers do not seem to realize how much more than usual attention they must give as to the clean- liness of their bodies, when called upon to live day and night in the same clothes, sleeping with each other in crowded tents. All men do not know how many more soldiers die from disease than by the hands of the enemy. Few would dwell a moment on the thought that the French sent over one hundred thousand sick men from the Crimea, nor would they ask bow many they left there- None seem to think that the most of this suffering and loss can be avoided. Eobert Jackson, M. J)., Inspector-General of Army Hos- pitals, says, in his work on the Formation, Discipline and Economy of armies, that— Among the personal cares and practices which contri- bute in a high degree to preserve health, and even to im- prove its condition, personal cleanliness is one of the most striking.