Invaliding of sick soldiers at home and abroad discussed.

Date:
[1866?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Invaliding of sick soldiers at home and abroad discussed. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    who have been rejected as of unsound constitutions, and therefore unfit for the Army, and men discharged from the Army, and re- stored to civil life either with constitutions shattered from long service, or hopelessly diseased at an earlier period of their soldier’s life. Notwithstanding this strange contrast, certain it is that even in peaceful times the mortality amongst our troops shows a higher ratio, indeed, a considerably higher ratio, than it does amongst the general population of the country. If there is any real foundation for what has already been stated, the explanation of this unfavour- able contrast may be traced to the disadvantageous circumstances under which Army medical officers have to combat incipient orga- nic disease. That Army surgeons treat most diseases quite as skilfully as, and some forms of disease, from long experience, even more skilfully than civil practitioners, cannot be doubted, therefore it becomes necessary to seek for the explanation of mortality else- where, than in the want of skill of the medical attendants. In order to probe the subject still farther, let us now consider how invalids from foreign stations are disposed of. Still contrasting the procedure in civil life with that in the Army, what is the practice in the former ? If a member of a family falls into delicate health, shows symp- toms, for example, of tubercular phthisis, or is already labouring under that disease, what do the parents or friends do for the invalid, if they are able to afford it ? If the disease be only incipient, they seek for a locality easily reached, where a climate less trying than that wherein the sufferer is living prevails, and there they send him or her during the trying seasons. They select from the numerous mild spots on our southern and westerly coasts those most suitable and easy of access. If pecuniary circumstances will enable them, and if the case be of a serious nature they select more southerly and warmer climes for a longer sojourn, such as Egypt, Malta, Spain, Madeira, Africa. There can be no doubt that within certain limits this is the proper treatment in such cases of delicacy of constitution, or even of confirmed disease. What, then is the sagacious custom in the Army ? What is the practice which all * thoughtful medical officers must in very many cases carry out with very great reluctance and serious misgivings ? Simply repeating what has already been said that it is not the custom to send invalid soldiers on home service to milder parts of the kingdom for change of air, or to attach them to regiments stationed in colonies, or at foreign stations, the climates of which might restore their vigour, but that they are kept with their regi- ments going from bad to worse, until their cases, having become hopeless, they are discharged from the service, if they do not die before then; we will now state what the procedure is with regard to invalids from foreign stations. It would occupy too much space to describe the various modifications which circumstances connected with some of our colonies lead to, we will, therefore, speak generally.