Address delivered on the occasion of the presentation of prizes at the Army Medical School at Netley, February 1st, 1896 / by Richard Quain.

  • Quain, Richard, 1800-1887.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered on the occasion of the presentation of prizes at the Army Medical School at Netley, February 1st, 1896 / by Richard Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    18 To illustrate still more forcibly the improvement which has taken place, I may point out to you that, in the Egyptian expedition of 1804, Sir James McGrigor reported that, plague excepted, the most formidable disease in the Army was ophthalmia ; of the Indian contingent alone 50 were inva- lided blind, and the French are said to have sent home 1,000 men absolutely deprived of sight; whilst in the first of our recent campaigns in that country not a single man lost his eyesight, though nearly 1,500 cases of inflammatory affections of the eyes were admitted to hospital. To have reduced the death-rate from sickness of an Army in the field to nil is a triumph which cannot be too strongly dwelt upon when urging an extension of the means by which such results have been attained, reflecting as they do in the highest degree on the skill and care with which the Director- General, Sir Thomas Crawford, arranged for the medical conduct of these expeditions. Equally remarkable are the benefits to the Indian Army as regards the diminution of mortality. But this subject has been so fully and ably treated by Professor Maclean in his fare- well address delivered here last year, that I need not dwell upon it now. Nor need I more than mention to those whom I now address the not less satisfactory results, both in respect to the amount of sickness and of death-rate, of the Army services at home. What, then, are the inferences to be drawn from the consideration of such facts? In earlier times armies were decimated and rendered useless by maladies which might have been prevented if wiser and more practical counsels had guided the inception and progress of the several expeditions. How different would have been the results of these expedi- tions if the knowledge and skill which are now at our disposal had been available. How many precious lives, what an enormous amount of suffering, what an expenditure of money; would have been saved if such had been the case.