(1) The inconvenience which attends the transportation of the wounded from the field of battle to the military hospitals on badly constructed carriages; the jarring of these wagons produces such disorder in the wounds and in all the nerves, that the greater part of the wounded perish on the way, especially if it be long, and the heat or cold of the weather be extreme.
(2) The danger of remaining long in the hospitals. This risk is much diminished by amputation; it converts a gunshot wound into one which is capable of being speedily healed, and obviates the causes that produce the hospital fever and gangrene.
(3) In case the wounded are of necessity abandoned on the field of battle: In this event it is important that amputation should have been performed, because—when it is completed—they [the wounded] may remain several days without being dressed, and the subsequent dressings are more easily accomplished. Moreover, it often happens that these unfortunate persons do not find surgeons sufficiently skilful to operate, as we have seen among some nations whose military hospitals were not organized like ours. (From Vol. 2 of Larrey’s “Memoirs of Military Surgery.”)
(In judging the quality of the advice given here the reader should not overlook the fact that it was pronounced in the early part of the nineteenth century.)
Larrey’s death occurred on July 24, 1842. A few years previous to this date he had received the title of Baron.
BOOK XIII
A FEW OF THE IMPORTANT HOSPITALS AND THE PRINCIPAL ORGANIZATIONS IN PARIS FOR TEACHING MEDICINE AND MIDWIFERY