Reminiscences : Army Medical Service / by W.T. Black.

  • Black, William Thomas, 1824-1909.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reminiscences : Army Medical Service / by W.T. Black. 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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    and Land Transport Corps, in tents, in the 3rd Division in the Highland Brigade, &c., and the hospitals appended were in marquee tents also. The water there was always of a doubtful description, being drawn from wells sunk in the black soil, the swarte erde or melcnicthom down to the base rock, and so would be contaminated with superficial leakage. To this cause mainly may be attributed the prevalence of infectious fever in the French lines, and its outbreaks, though less severe, seen in our troops; and there was no river near at hand for drainage or fresh water, as the camps were all on the upland plateau of the Crimea. One became familiar with the storm blizzard in the winter as it occurs in Canada and Bussia, where a large black cloud appears on the northern horizon, gradually nearing and widening, till it overspreads and then bursts into a gale, with driving snow and sleet, covering the ground several inches. One had to visit the hospitals to see that tents were secure, turn out the orderlies to steady poles and hammer in the pegs and sweep up the snow at the tent doors, to give access to the interiors to the sick and wounded. Bell tents generally for officers and men were then doubled by one being covered over by another, with small space between as the cover bulges, and the ground was dug out three to four feet inside (or “ dug outs ”) and boarded on the floor, and a substantial cot inserted, and table and washstand, &c., for officers. A small stove was also placed inside with iron flue leading into the bank of the “dug out ’’and into the ditch of the tent outside, with short chimney erected. As the winter cold was severe, and longer than at home, I found it necessary to put on double dress, and so