A manual of practical hygiene : prepared especially for use in the medical service of the army / by Edmund A. Parkes.

  • Parkes, Edmund A. (Edmund Alexander), 1819-1876.
Date:
1864 ;
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of practical hygiene : prepared especially for use in the medical service of the army / by Edmund A. Parkes. 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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    work a cure, as, for example, in the case of the dwellings of our poorer classes. In many parts of the country the cottages are unfit for human beings; in many of our towns, the cupidity of builders runs up houses of the most miser- able structure, for which there are unhappily no lack of applicants; or masters oblige their men to work in rooms, or to follow plans which are most detri- mental to health. But even in such cases it will, I believe, be always found that self-interest would really dictate the course which is one of the foremost rules of religion, viz., that we should do for our neighbours as for ourselves. Analyse the effect of such selfishness and carelessness as I have referred to on the nation at large, and Ave shall find that the partial gain to the individual is far more than counterbalanced by the injury to the State, by the discontent, recklessness, and indifference produced in the persons who suffer, and which may have a disastrous national result. In many cases, again, the employer of labour finds that, by proper sanitary care of his men, he reaps at once an advantage in better and more zealous work, in fewer interruptions from ill health, &c, so that his apparent outlay is more than compensated. This is shown in the strongest light by the army. The State employs a large number of men, whom it places under its own social and sanitary con- ditions. It removes from them much of the self-control with regard to hygienic rules which other men possess ; and is therefore bound by every principle of honest and fair contract to see that these men are in no way injured by its system. But more than this : it is as much bound by its self-interest. It has been proved over and over again that nothing is so costly in all ways as disease, and that nothing is so remunerative as the out- lay which augments health, and in doing so augments the amoimt and value of the work done. It was the moral argument, as well as the financial one, which led Lord Herbert to devote his life to the task of doing justice to the soldier, of in- creasing the amount of his health, and moral and mental training, and, in so doing, of augmenting not only his happiness, but the value of his services to the country. And by the side of Lord Herbert in this work was one whose name will ever be dear to the country, and whose life, ever since that memor- able winter at Scutari in 1855, has been given up entirely to the attempt to improve the condition of the soldier. This book has been written to assist in carrying out one of Lord Herbert's plans, and in accordance with his wish, and with that of Lord De Grey, his friend, coadjutor, and successor. It has, therefore, been sketched on a narrower basis than the longer treatise indicated above, which would have to deal with both sexes, all ages, and various trades and conditions. Although, however, as dealing with Military Hygiene, and drawing its examples from the soldier's life, it is a work on Army Sanitation, it yet in- cludes the general principles of hygiene applicable to all men; principles winch, though here stated necessarily in the briefest and barest way, are, I am persuaded, fraught with benefit to all men, if they are properly interpreted and faithfully applied.