Manual of instructions for military surgeons on the examination of recruits and discharge of soldiers : with an appendix, containing the official regulations of the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau, and those for the formation of the invalid corps, etc., etc. / prepared at the request of the United States Sanitary Commission by John Ordronaux.

  • Ordronaux, John, 1830-1908.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of instructions for military surgeons on the examination of recruits and discharge of soldiers : with an appendix, containing the official regulations of the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau, and those for the formation of the invalid corps, etc., etc. / prepared at the request of the United States Sanitary Commission by John Ordronaux. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    regard to hygienic laws, the recruit is gradually broken into acquiring the habit'of encountering them. While originally weak men may thus be hardened, it will always rest with commanding officers to see that due re- gard be had to the constitutional tendencies and the re- cuperative powers of their men, while inuring them to the hardships of the life they are to follow. The young may be as strong as the middle-aged, but they always differ from them in powers of endurance. Endurance, therefore, is the result of an acquired habit of muscular activity imparting tone to the whole system. And it is the culminating point in Military Hygiene, to cultivate the physical powers of young men by a daily practice operating within the limits of their strength, and never pushing exercise beyond fatigue, nor fatigue into prostration, but pursuing its course in such a manner, as to secure a progressive development in the foundation of those powers, as well as a gradual evolution of muscular activity, so that he who has once carried the calf may be brought to carry the ox. No one understood this physiological law better than Napoleon, nor practised more faithfully upon it, and in illustration it is only necessary to cite the great victory of Dresden, which has been well designated a triumph of Military Hygiene.* On the afternoon of the second day of the battle, when the French army had been fre- quently repulsed in its attempts to cross the Elbe, the Young Guard arrived after a protracted march, beneath a sweltering heat. The moment seemed auspicious for deciding the fate of the day—the allies had lom>- been * Odier, Cours d'Etudes sur l'Ad.mnistr. Miliuure, vol. iii., p. no. Revolat, Hygiene Militaire.