MILITARY MEDICINE CHAMBERLAIN. 239 



bullet forceps were gradually introduced. In the fiftenth, six- 

 teenth, and seventeenth centuries the writings show that some still 

 considered such wounds poisoned and treated them by boiling oil, 

 multiple scarification and venesection; while others, especially 

 German surgeons, objected to these cruel methods and resorted to 

 mild measures, such as warm oil of turpentine, hempseed oil, honey 

 and warm milk, especially goat's milk. Tents rubbed with pork to 

 keep the wounds open were advocated. Alum, white hair of the 

 rabbit, droppings of peacocks, dried blood, burning cotton, and red- 

 hot irons were relied on as hemostatics. Suppuration was con- 

 sidered a necessary preliminary to healing. 



Amid the barbaric methods, the charlatanism and the superstition 

 of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a few brilliant lights flick- 

 ered, notably Wurz, a famous Swiss barber-surgeon (1518-1575) ; 

 Mithobius, who wrote a treatise on military surgery in 1553, and 

 Gelman, who published works on the same subject in 1652. Gelman 

 described a death from tetanus, following a gunshot wound, which 

 he blames on the surgeon, saying that the patient could have been 

 saved if he had been given a draft of Thiriak Andromach in wine 

 of lily of the valley, and if the neck had been rubbed with a particu- 

 lar ointment, and the mouth held open with a gag. The greatest 

 advance in surgery of this period was made by Ambroise Pare (1510- 

 1590), to whom belongs the credit of having brought about the in- 

 troduction of the ligature, though he himself was not the first to use 

 it. Purman, who wrote an excellent book on military surgery in 

 1738, is the first to describe deformation of bullets. 



In the earliest recorded sanitary organization with armies the 

 barber-surgeons were attached to companies, and a staff physician 

 was assigned to the headquarters of each large force. Regimental 

 surgeons were appointed in the English service as early as 1639 and 

 ranked with chaplains. Sick and wounded were treated in their 

 company camps by camp followers, and when the army moved were 

 carried on wagons or left at the nearest town. In some cases the 

 barber-surgeons provided their own medicines and instruments, 

 while in other instances deductions were made from the men's pay 

 for the purchase of such articles. About the year 1700 medicine 

 chests were provided as a part of the equipment of regiments. In 

 the early part of the eighteenth century the training of a better 

 class of military surgeons was begun and these men were placed in 

 the position of regimental surgeons, supervising the company bar- 

 ber-surgeons. England was one of the first countries to recognize 

 the necessity of a regular medical service in the army and to respect 

 medical officers. From very remote times the medical department 

 was an integral part of the English army, and in 1685 mention is 

 made of a surgeon general, and under William III there was a phy- 



