Statistical report on the sickness and mortality in the Army of the United States / Compiled from the records ... Jan. 1819, to Jan. 1839. Prepared under the direction of Thomas Lawson.

  • United States. Surgeon-General's Office.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical report on the sickness and mortality in the Army of the United States / Compiled from the records ... Jan. 1819, to Jan. 1839. Prepared under the direction of Thomas Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    | INTRODUCTION. The following pages are devoted to the investigation of the comparative in- fluence of various systems of climate upon the organization of man—a subject which engaged the attention of the father of physic himself, in his treatise on ‘‘ Air, Water, and Situation.”” ‘The medical literature of almost every coun- try abounds with medico-topographical descriptions of particular localities ; but the mere accumulation of facts of this kind, unless systematically arranged can avail but little in determining the operation of physical causes upon the human constitution. In observing the phenomena of nature, the view of the individual practitioner is here restricted to narrow boundaries ; and as these various and complicated facts have been but partially generalized, the laws of nature in regard to these external influences upon the healthy and diseased condition of man are often sadly misinterpreted. For the period of twenty years, quarterly reports of diseases among the regular troops have been uninterruptediy made to the Medical Bureau of the United States Army ; thus affording the means, in connexion with the returns in the, Adjutant General’s Office, not only to investigate morbid action by the numerical method, but to show its relation with climate. As these diversified facts admit of classification according to certain geographical limits, the results, it is hoped, will furnish some general laws towards the basis of a system of medical geography. This report consists of a collection of facts in relation to the medical topo- graphy of the military posts, and the vital statistics of the troops extending over a period of twenty years. ‘The general conclusions have been arrived at through a process of statistical investigation, and the accompanying remarks are the result of the experience and observation of individuals whose officia duty it was to study the local features of certain regions, to investigate the causes of their diseases, and to analyze and describe them. The diseases incident to armies present an extensive field for observation. The advantages offered in the Revolutionary war, and in our second struggle with Great Britain, were but slightly improved. Excepting the ‘* Medical Sketches’ of Surgeon Mann, and a few remarks interspersed in the works of Dr. Rush, we are almost entirely ignorant of the medical history of these two eventful periods. Military Aygiene—the knowledge of maintaining the health