Evening star., 1917-03-25
Opposition
Expressed.

Expressed lntendant ana MS COM
missioners confess their
inability to take the wounded off the
field. Never would the commander in
chief admit in his columns, already in
numbered by baggage. this particular
corps. which, half military. half inde-
pendent. would prove less manageable
| than other corps d'elite.''
Maurice's project relates to the period
of 1741-174s, with particular reference
tria"; the battle of Fontenoy, 1915;
Rancoux. 1746: Lawfield. 1747. and
finally to the peace of AK la Chapelle,
174S
In 1874 the fate of wounded soldiers
on battlefelds was extremely precari-
GUS 1t was not however. because no
thought was given the wounded. A
military service existed for a fact since
the time of Sully and Richelieu, and
this service, called the health service -
wounded. LIE Teller declares that the
nrst ambulance was established by
Sully at the siege of Amiens I59D. but
the first fixed hospital was established
by Richelieu at Pignerol during the
war in Italy 1662). The soldiers of
Henry ~. astonished at the precau-
tions of Sully, surnamed the siege of
Amiens the siege of velvet" and the
of quality caused themselves to be
carried to an Ambulance" in order to be
better treated than at Paris. Under Louis
XIV the fixed hospitals of the army. on
the model Of those at Pignerol, were
multiplied due to the foresight Of Vau-
ban, who was charged with repairing.
terrifying or constructing strong places
In Flanders and Alsace. Vauban caused
hospitals to be attached to these under
the orders OF surgeon majors and the
m
me sanitary service instituted by
Suily and Richelieu soon grew in the
esteem of officers. Ambrose Pare
raised surgery in these hospitals to
ligature of arteries for cauterizatton In
amputations. He said modestly in
speaking of any patient whom he had
saved from death: Il treated him. God
cured him. Surgery. it should be
added, at that period was little prac-
ticed by medical men in cities and was
de chased as a manual labor and rele-
gated to BARRIERS. The Montpelliertan n
La Peyronie was ennobled for his art
IN 1721. 1t was on the request Of La
Peyronie that Louis XIV created. in
1871. the Academy of Surgery and con-
ferred on the surgeons of Paris by royal
letters the privileges of regents and
doctors of the university.
The hospital in 172S was a place
feared above all by soldiers, who went
there with death in their
Hospital souls" The directors
n.I, treated their patients
harshly and without pity
SO much was this so that an officer who
cared for his men preferred to treat
them in tents under his own supervi-
as a last resort. In vain royal DEGREES
attempted to prevent frauds By a de-
cree of December 90, 111s, Minister
Leblanc ordered that the provisions of
the pharmacies should .be renewed every
two months. The infirmierS appropri-
ated the brandy reserved for the sick.
and to prevent this robbery Leblanc
announced officially that the brandy
contained a purgative oil (croton)''
There was a change for the better in
1Iia and Noltaire had occasion to praise
the sanitary arrangements at F'ontenoy
Maurice in his memoir writes of the
terrible sufferings of the wounded and
the difficulties attending their trans
port from the battlefelds, a task which
retarded the march of troops and often
prevented the general from following
up victory, lit being inhuman to
abandon the wounded" Maurice, whose
imagination is haunted by visions of
wounded abandoned on deserted battle
fields, depicts them to Louis d'Orleans
thus: The wounded are exposed to the
weather half alive in the midst of the
dead, without consolation, sometimes
without hope of succor. If they escape
the horrible fate of being crushed un-
der the hoofs of horses or strangled by
the multitude they remain a prey to the
fury. not only of the enemy but often
of the soldiers of their own nation, even
of men of their own company, as eager
as the enemy to despoil. Often these