The Crimean War plays a very conspicuous rôle in the history of war-pestilences and of military sanitation; on the one hand, it showed how severe a penalty an army has to pay if, without measures of precaution, troops are sent to the scene of the war from infected localities; on the other hand, it showed that it is possible to prevent serious outbreaks of pestilence if energetic measures are adopted to provide good food and shelter for the troops. Whereas the English soldiers suffered a great deal more from pestilence in the first winter than the French soldiers, in the second winter, in consequence of great improvements introduced in the housing, clothing, and feeding of troops, the English suffered very little, while the French suffered severely.
In the year 1853 cholera made its appearance in several places in France, and in the following year it spread over the entire country; it raged most furiously in the southern districts. Since the French troops, who were embarked at Toulon and Marseilles, were consequently infected with cholera, those suffering from the disease had to be put ashore from the first transport ship at Malta, and others at the Peiraeus. When the troops disembarked at Gallipoli there were thirteen cholera-patients among them, and these were presently followed by other cases. Sporadic cases of cholera then began to occur wherever the French soldiers went, as in Nagara, Varna, Adrianople, &c. The fact that the disease was borne thither by French troops was frankly admitted by most of the French military physicians; only a few, for example, Cazalas, assumed that the disease was already prevalent in Dobrudja.[[196]]
During the expedition undertaken by the French soldiers to the unhealthy and deserted district of Dobrudja, cholera broke out in the army like an explosion, compelling it to return. The English soldiers during the siege of Varna, and also parts of the English fleet, were likewise attacked by cholera. Statements made by Scrive and Chenu regarding the number of French soldiers that succumbed to the pestilence diverge widely; according to Scrive, the French army, which numbered some 55,000 men, lost 5,183 men between July 3 and August 30, 1854, in consequence of cholera,[[197]] while Chenu gives us the following statistics:[[198]]
| No. patients. | No. deaths. | |
|---|---|---|
| July (1854) | 8,239 | 5,030 |
| August | 3,043 | 3,015 |
| September | 376 | 239 |
The English army, which numbered some 30,000 men, also suffered:[[199]]
| No. patients. | No. deaths. | |
|---|---|---|
| July (1854) | 449 | 285 |
| August | 938 | 611 |
| September | 1,232 | 575 |
| October | 445 | 273 |
In September the scene of the war was transferred to the Crimea, but there again cholera raged furiously in both armies; in the winter of 1854–5, to be sure, it carried away a relatively small number of men, but in the summer of 1855 it broke out anew with great severity. The total number of deaths in the French army during the entire campaign was 12,467, in the English army 4,513, and in the Piedmontese army 1,230. The size of the armies varied greatly; the French army was largest in the latter part of the year 1855, when it numbered 145,000 men; the total number of English soldiers was 97,864, and that of Piedmontese soldiers, 21,000.
According to Häsar,[[200]] cholera spread far and wide from the scene of the war—throughout Turkey, around the Black Sea, in Greece, in Smyrna, along the coast of the Dardanelles, in Constantinople, Odessa, Rumelia, and in the Danube principalities; the inhabitants of the district of Dobrudja also suffered severely from the pestilence, which after the war spread over a large part of Russia.
Scurvy also raged in the French army in the dry summer of the year 1855, as well as in the severe winter following. In August 1855 there were 2,581 scurvy patients in the army, which was the largest number in the summer months, and in February there were 4,341, the largest number in the winter months. The outbreak of scurvy among the English troops, who also suffered from the disease in the winter of 1854–5, was later checked by the consumption of better food.
Dysentery was also very common: 6,105 French soldiers suffering from that disease in the Crimea were taken to the field-lazarets; 2,061 died there, and 2,792 were removed to Constantinople. No less than 7,883 English soldiers contracted acute and chronic dysentery, and 2,143 succumbed to it.