[149] Homer mentions Podalirius and Machaon, sons of Æsculapius, as two excellent Physicians or Surgeons in the Grecian Army. Vid. Iliad, lib. ii. Physic and Surgery were antiently exercised by the same Persons.
[150] Vid. Xenophon. de Institut. Cyri. lib. i. et viii.
[151] Tacitus, after giving an Account of 50,000 People being killed by the Fall of an Amphitheatre at Fidena, during the Time of a Shew of Gladiators, has these Words: “Ceterum post recentem cladem, patuere procerum domus, fomenta & medici passim præbiti; suit urbs per illos dies, quanquam mæsta facie veterum institutis similis, qui magna post prælia saucios largitione & cura sustentabant.” Vid. lib. iv. Annal. § 63.
[152] In Livy we find the following Passage: “Neque immemor ejus quod initio consulatus imbiberat, conciliandi animos plebis, saucios milites curandos dividit patribus. Fabiis plurimi dati, nec alibi majore cura habiti.” Vid. lib. ii. cap. xlvii.
[153] Justin mentions the same Thing of the Spartans after their Defeat at Sellasia—“Patentibus omnes domibus saucios excipiebant, vulnera curabant, lapsos reficiebant.” Vid. lib. xxviii. cap. iv.
[154] When Parties of Sick or Wounded are to be sent from Camp, or from one Hospital to another, Care ought to be taken that they are placed properly in the Waggons; that they have proper physical People, Nurses, &c. to attend them; as well as Provisions, and other Necessaries, so as to be in no Danger of wanting any Thing while they are on their Journey.
[155] The Roman Generals seem to have sent their Sick and Wounded into Towns, in the same Manner as is done by those of the present Time. For we read in Cæsar’s Commentaries of this Method having been practised on more Occasions than one. In the sixty-second Chapter of the third Book, de Bello Civili, we have the following Passage: “Itaque nulla interposita mora, sauciorum modo & ægrorum habita ratione, impedimenta omnia silentio prima nocte ex castris Apolloniæ præmisit, ac conquiescere ante iter confectum vetuit. His una legio missa præsidio est.”—And immediately after, in chap. lxv. “Itaque præmissis nunciis ad Cn. Domitium Cæsar scripsit, & quid fieri vellet ostendit: præsidioque Apolloniæ cohortibus iv. Lissi i. tres Orici relictis; quique erant ex vulneribus ægri depositis; per Epirum atque Arcarniam iter facere cæpit.”
And in the twentieth chapter, de Bello Africano, we read: “Labienus saucios suos, quorum numerus maximus fuit, jubet in plaustris deligatos Adrumentum deportari.”
It would be a right Measure, in the Beginning of every War, to settle by a Cartel that military Hospitals on both Sides should be considered as Sanctuaries for the Sick, and mutually protected; as was agreed upon between the late Earl of Stairs, who commanded the British Troops, and the Duke de Noailles, who commanded the French in the Campaign in Germany in the year 1743. See Dr. Pringle’s Preface.
[156] Every military Hospital ought to have a Number of Shirts belonging to it, for the Use of the Sick who arrive without having clean Linen with them. As soon as their own Shirts are washed and dried, or that new ones are provided by their Regiments, the Hospital Shirts ought to be taken from them.