THE NAPOLEONIC MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

Human Element
Introduction/HOME
Venesection
Human Element
Deaths in British Army Hospitals: 1812-1815
Life in the British Navy
Napoleonic Surgery
Medical Hygiene
Medical Evacuations
Disease!
"The Flying Ambulance"
Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey
Scurvy
Bonaparte's Demise
British Medical Services

The rationale was different in the Napoleonic Era.

We may wonder why people back then could handle all this risk and pain.  The reason they could was that they were used to it.  If a farmer broke his leg severely, he would die or be disabled.  They would then starve to death or lose their land.  If a women had uncontrolable sepsis after childbirth, she would die.  If young children got sick, more often than not, they would die.
 
People also were used to labor.  Before our time, most people had to work very hard with little expection of reward.  To the labourers, the military was not as bad as we thought it was.
 
From these hardships dealt with in life.  All this horrid and disguisting stuff was common even in the ordinary life.  So to them it was not as bad as we think.

MARCH 2005

Term Project
Abraham Schreier
Mr. Crowley
Honors World History
March 2005