Ill "FIRST AID" IN THE SEVENTIES 39 



improperly treated, were still common objects in 

 the country. In February 1859 he delivered at 

 the United Service Institution a lecture on the 

 importance of a knowledge of the elements of 

 practical surgery to naval and military officers. By 

 these elements he meant not so much a rough 

 knowledge of anatomy, but such matters as are 

 now called ** first aid," which have now become 

 part of the knowledge not only of officers, but of 

 many privates, and are embodied in military text- 

 books. 



Here, for instance, is what was then deemed an 

 enlightened suggestion for carrying a badly wounded 

 man, made by a general of the day. ''A single 

 pole, eight or nine feet in length, a branch of a tree, 

 an oar, or anything of the sort that can be procured, 

 is laid down beside the wounded man, who is lashed 

 firmly to it from head to foot with handkerchiefs, 

 belts, clothes, or blankets torn in strips. It is then 

 lifted up and carried on the shoulders of two men, or 

 may even be dragged for some distance, with one end 

 resting on the ground, by a single man ! " Flower 

 showed that with the progress in the art of destruc- 

 tion there had been a corresponding advance in the 

 means adopted for the preservation of wounded men 

 from the after effects of their injuries, and from the 

 accidents inseparable from war. He then showed 

 how bleeding, burns, frost-bite, exposed wounds and 

 the like might be treated, or prevented from becom- 

 ing worse until the surgeon was at hand, and gave 



