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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

A startling narrative revealing the impressive medical and surgical advances that quickly developed as solutions to the horrors unleashed by World War I. The Great War of 1914-1918 burst on the European scene with a brutality to mankind not yet witnessed by the civilized world. Modern warfare was no longer the stuff of chivalry and honor; it was a mutilative, deadly, and humbling exercise to wipe out the very presence of humanity. Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of maimed, beaten, and bleeding men surged into aid stations and hospitals with injuries unimaginable in their scope and destruction. Doctors scrambled to find some way to salvage not only life but limb. The Great War and the Birth of Modern Medicine provides a startling and graphic account of the efforts of teams of doctors and researchers to quickly develop medical and surgical solutions. Those problems of gas gangrene, hemorrhagic shock, gas poisoning, brain trauma, facial disfigurement, broken bones, and broken spirits flooded hospital beds, stressing caregivers and prompting medical innovations that would last far beyond the Armistice of 1918 and would eventually provide the backbone of modern medical therapy. Thomas Helling’s description of events that shaped refinements of medical care is a riveting account of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of men and women to deter the total destruction of the human body and human mind. His tales of surgical daring, industrial collaboration, scientific discovery, and utter compassion provide an understanding of the horror that laid a foundation for the medical wonders of today. The marvels of resuscitation, blood transfusion, brain surgery, X-rays, and bone setting all had their beginnings on the battlefields of France. The influenza contagion in 1918 was an ominous forerunner of the frightening pandemic of 2020-2021. For anyone curious about the true terrors of war and the miracles of modern medicine, this is a must read.

The Seven Years’ War, often called the first global war, spanned North America, the West Indies, Europe, and India. In these locations diseases such as scurvy, smallpox, and yellow fever killed far more than combat did, stretching the resources of European states. In Disease, War, and the Imperial State, Erica Charters demonstrates how disease played a vital role in shaping strategy and campaigning, British state policy, and imperial relations during the Seven Years’ War. Military medicine was a crucial component of the British war effort; it was central to both eighteenth-century scientific innovation and the moral authority of the British state. Looking beyond the traditional focus of the British state as a fiscal war-making machine, Charters uncovers an imperial state conspicuously attending to the welfare of its armed forces, investing in medical research, and responding to local public opinion. Charters shows military medicine to be a credible scientific endeavor that was similarly responsive to local conditions and demands. Disease, War, and the Imperial State is an engaging study of early modern warfare and statecraft, one focused on the endless and laborious task of managing manpower in the face of virulent disease in the field, political opposition at home, and the clamor of public opinion in both Britain and its colonies.

Our picture of the Great War is indelibly bound up with the suffering of the soldiers who fought. Lines of men blinded by poison gas hanging on to their comrades; wounded soldiers on stretchers patiently awaiting treatment; stretcher bearers themselves struggling through the mud to bring their comrades aid and succour; and the unbearably poignant pictures of limbless or shell-shocked troops in hospital back in Blighty struggling to come to terms with their devastating conditions.The story of the military medical services in the war is a fascinating but little-told one Now the Naval and Military Press is proud to republish that story, in the shape of these reprints of the rare Official Histories of the Army's medical service compiled by Major-General Sir W. G. Macpherson. The service in 1914 was much improved thanks to reforms after the Boer War, in which thousands of troops had died needlessly of disease thanks to the lack of proper medical care. In 1914, by contrast, the service was ready to cope with high casualties. The author was himself deputy-director of the Army's medical service throughout the war, and is described as having a 'genius for organisation and improving the service and untiring energy'.His four-volume history is no dry-as-dust record of administration as one might expect, but a practical, well-written day to day description of how the wounded and sick were cared for from front line casualty clearing stations to base hospitals far behind the lines. It skilfully weaves essential medical details and statistics into a narrative of battles and campaigns from every theatre of the war. It is also a record of a steep learning curve, as the medical services struggled - often successfully - to keep abreast with casualties inflicted by the changing technology of war. At first, in 1914, most wounds were caused by bullets, but with the increasing use of artillery, shell splinters, shrapnel balls and poison gas accounted for the majority. The heavily manured soil of France and Flanders ensured hat there was a high incidence of tetanus and gas gangrene. The use of blood transfusions, and increased understanding of the importance of blood groups, saved many lives, while behind the lines the pioneering use of plastic surgery strove to repair the hideous damage inflicted by weapons of war.This is a moving record of compassion in action, and of a service which stove to mitigate, heal and help relieve the inevitable suffering caused by the most destructive war that the world had yet seen.