An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany

Excerpt

May it please Your Majesty,

To permit me to lay at your Feet the following Sheets, published with a View to be useful to those, who hereafter may have the Care of the Health of your Majesty’s Troops.

Your Majesty’s particular Inquiries into the State of Your Military Hospitals, in every Quarter of the World, in the Time of the late glorious and successful War; Your Concern for every Officer and Soldier who suffered either by Sickness or by Wounds in the Cause of their King and Country; and Your Solicitude to procure them every possible Assistance and Relief, cannot fail to excite the highest Admiration of Your Majesty’s Goodness in the Breast of every Subject, and the warmest Gratitude in the Heart of every Soldier.

The Knowledge of these Circumstances induced me to flatter myself, that a Work of this Kind would be agreeable to Your Majesty; and should this Attempt towards pointing out the Means of alleviating those Miseries, which necessarily attend a Military Life in the Time of Service, be acceptable, I shall obtain the utmost of my Wishes; it being the greatest Ambition of my Heart ever so to act as to merit Your Majesty’s Approbation, and to subscribe myself,

May it please Your Majesty,
Your Majesty’s most dutiful Subject,
And most faithful
and humble Servant,
DONALD MONRO.

THE
PREFACE.

Among the numerous Authors of Observations in the Art of Physick, there are but few who have expressly written on the Treatment of those Distempers, most generally incident to an Army in the Field: The following Work, therefore, seems to have a fair Claim to be acceptable to the Publick, having been compiled during the Author’s Attendance on the British Military Hospitals in Germany in the late War; and in order to render it of still further Use, he has occasionally added, by Way of Note, the Practice of some of the most eminent Physicians in similar Diseases, as well as a few Histories of Cases which passed under his own Care at St. George’s Hospital, London.

To avoid the Repetition of the Composition of particular Medicines, and the Interruption that would be given by their being inserted in the Body of the Work, a small Pharmacopœia is added, to which his Practice in the Army Hospitals was chiefly confined.

In a commercial Country like our own, where Numbers of Hands are constantly wanted for the carrying on our Manufactories, we have a strong political Argument to add to that drawn from the Dictates of Humanity, why the Life of every individual should be most carefully attended to.

The Preservation of the Lives of Soldiers is then with us a Matter of the highest Importance, in order to make as low as possible the Number of Recruits who must be perpetually drawn off for the Service of War. The Author has, therefore, in this Treatise, endeavoured to point out the Means most likely to keep Men healthy when employed in different Services; and also the Manner in which Military Hospitals ought to be fitted up, and conducted.—As he was never in any of the warm Climates, nor ever at Sea along with Troops aboard of Transports, whatever is mentioned relative to such Situations, is to be understood as taken from printed Accounts of these Subjects, or collected from the Conversation of physical Gentlemen, who were employed on such Services during the two last Wars....