The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-08

l self with physicians in his wars, but | they minlstered to him alone, and his soldiers had to treat their own wounds as best they might. The Romans had | a poor opinion of doctors; yet they &C., | knowledged their use on the battle field, and each legion had its Medicus Vulneraius. Such good service did l they render to the armies of the re- | public that Augustus gave them the privilege of citizenship, exempted i them from taxation and treated them with distinguished honor. The nations of Europe did not initiate Rome in it's institution of military surgery, and in | the Crusades and other wars of the middle ages there was no provision made for the systematic care of the 1 wounded. A king would have his own l physician; the barons had their clerks or chaplains, who had rude empirical knowledge of certain remedies which I they employed upon their patrons.
 The rest of the army dpended on ig- l norant pretenders, who followed the I camps endeavoring to sell much vaunt- l ed balms, and on certain of the camp l women who made a profession of suck /! ing wounds. This practice, the suction of penetrating wounds, originated in i Greece and has been handed down al- most to the present day. "Women of all ranks" says Fournier, sucked the 1 wounds of warriors, some as a matter I of business, and others from the devo- ton of their love; the girl would such her lovers wound.' Jean Pitard, born in the beginning of the thirteenth cen l tury, was the medical director of Louis KS crusade. He had with him as as sistants number of monks and chap l lains, who united the healing art with the care of souls. Even St. Louis, how ever, kept his surgeons for his own ex- l elusive use, and Pitard and his success sors, if they ministered to any but their immediate patrons, xpected an addi- tional fee for so doing, or did it as an act of charity which no one could de- mand and which no one had right to expect.
 The invention of gunpowder, by ir1- troducing a new and frightful class of injuries, made the wounds of battle much more serious, and such as to de- mand much greater skill and care for their treatment than in the days of lances and arrows. Yet it was not till the reign of Henry " of France that military surgery, properly so called, came into being. Even the illustrious Ambroise Pare, whom Abernethy classes among the barber surgeons, had no military rank, but accompanied the armies merely as a private individual. 1 Yet by the supereminence of his genius he was acknowledged the chief by all his companions. Whoever was wound ed wished for his aid. lille did away with the use of boiling oil, which be- fore his time was considered a suitable and appropriate application to gunshot l wounds, and by his skill and judgment agined the high reputation which he | still enjoys. "The reputation of Am broise Pare" says Fournier, twas so universal in the armies that the soldier knew no danger when this great sur geon was present Metz was besieged; 1 the wounded were perishing, deprived of all salutary aid. Pare hastens into the city to afford them the blessings of his art; the soldiers, knowing his arri- val, cry: We fear nothing now; our Amhbroise is with us!' The leaders in the beleaguered town receive him as the most precious reinforcement that could be sent them, and, by their care
 abundance reigned in his house, while the besieged. were enduring the most rude privations.
 Military surgery proper began with Henry ". He first established militia ry hospitals, which before that time had been unknown. This was at the siege of An1iens, in 1597; and so agree 3 able was it to his troops that they called that "the velvet campaign" In the reign of Louis XIII the medical de- partment of the French army began to assume 8 form and organization, and was gradually improved till, under the first Napoleon, it reached its acme of perfection by the care of the illustrious Percy and the yet more illustrious Lar rey. The army surgeon, through all that period, was the only one who could expect to attain eninence. The elder Petit, the inventor of the tourni- quet, made no less than eight cam paigns, and his son four. In England, John Hunter, Hennen and Guthrie, three of the brightest names in British surgery, were all military surgeons. Before the time of Percy, the medical corps of an army were always placed in the rear, at a considerable disHtance from the line of battle, where their at
 tentions were necessarily confined to such of the wounded as could be brought to their station. Percy intro
 duced the practice of certain of the
 surgeons going to the front with disci- plined assistants, and thus giving
 their aid where it was most needed,
 and saving many lives that must oth. erWise have perished for want of timely succor. To Percy belongs the honor of
 having instituted the first organized
 ambulance corps.
 For many years, and not until so
 very long ago, trephining, or trepan- ming, was one of the most frequent of
 capital operations. in the army espe-
 cialy, and many a surgeon, in France particularly, thought as little of tap