OF
Military Hospitals.
Whenever Men are seized with Distempers, they ought immediately to be separated from those in Health, and either sent to the Regimental[148] or General Hospital.
There is no Part of the Service that requires more to be regarded than the Choice of proper Places for Hospitals, and the right Management of them, on which the Health and Strength of an Army often depends; for in wet unwholesome Seasons, if infectious Disorders get into the Hospitals, which possibly might have been prevented by proper Care, they often weaken an Army in a very short Time far more than the Sword of the Enemy.
We have no Account of the particular Manner in which the Antients took Care of their Sick and Wounded in Times of War; for although we read in Homer[149] of Surgeons or Physicians attending the Grecian Camp, and in Xenophon[150] of Cyrus’s having appointed Physicians to his Army; and we learn from Tacitus[151] and Livy[152], that the wounded Romans were received into the Houses of the Nobility, and had Physicians to attend them, and were furnished with Fomentations and other proper Remedies; and from Justin[153], that the Lacedemonians followed the same Method: yet these Authors make no Mention of the particular Oeconomy or Manner in which these Hospitals were conducted.
The Hospitals commonly wanted for an Army acting on the Continent, are,
1. One in the Rear, to follow their Motions, so as to be always ready to receive the Sick from Camp, which is called the Moveable or Flying Hospital. 2. One or more, at some Distance, in Towns, to receive such of the Sick as can be moved from the Flying Hospital, when they are obliged to go from one Place to another; or when a greater Number of Sick is sent to them than they can easily take Care of[154].
Each of the Hospitals ought to be provided with Physicians, Surgeons Mates, Purveyors, or Commissaries, and others, to attend and take Care of the Sick.
Besides the physical People who attend the Hospital, one or two Physicians ought to go along with the Army to attend the Commander in Chief, and the General and Staff Officers, in Case of Sickness; and an Apothecary, provided with a small Chest of Medicines, ought to attend at Head Quarters to make up the Prescriptions of the Physicians.
A Number of Hospital Surgeons also, with Mates, ought to attend the Army, to be ready in Case of an Action. These ought to be attached to the Suite of the Commanders of the different Corps or Brigades, and to be quartered or encamped with them. And each Surgeon should be provided with a Waggon or some Horses loaded with a proper chirurgical Apparatus, as Instruments, Bandages, Lint, and other Things necessary for taking Care of the Wounded.