"Provides an abbreviated history of the Edinburgh Chair of Military Surgery, with an analysis of the factors that led to its establishment and its role during the period between 1806 and 1855 when this Chair was funded by successive governments. Looks at the two individuals who held this professorship, John Thomson (1806-22) and George Ballingall (1822-55)" - adapted from Preface, p. 3.

The significance of the Regius Chair of Military Surgery that existed in the University of Edinburgh from 1806–55 is discussed in detail for the first time in this book. The first holder, John Thomson, also held the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's Chair of Surgery from 1804. This Regius Chair was the only one of its type in Britain for almost 50 years, and was established during the Peninsular War. After the second holder, Sir George Ballingall, died in 1855, the Government withdrew its funding support. This Chair introduced numerous Edinburgh medical students to Military Surgery, and many who attended subsequently entered the Medical Service of either the Army, Navy or East India Company. Large numbers of medical officers in the Public service also attended. These courses were popular, and the topics covered were not discussed elsewhere in the Edinburgh medical curriculum.

Dr. Thomas Addison (1795-1860): Agitating the Whole Medical World presents Dr. Addison's life story, considers his reception during his lifetime, and recognizes his profound contributions to modern medicine. Dr. Addison weathered five years of scorching criticism from peers for asserting that the adrenal glands were essential to life and that diseased adrenal glands could darken a white person's skin to mulatto hues. History validated his discoveries, which led other investigators to isolate and identify epinephrine, the adrenocortical steroids, and even vitamin B12.

This study demonstrates the emergence and development of the identity of the ‘military medical officer’ and places their work within the broader context of changes to British medicine during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Providing the first ever statistical study of a professional cohort in the era of the industrial revolution, this prosopographical study of some 450 surgeons who joined the army medical service during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, charts the background, education, military and civilian career, marriage, sons' occupations, wealth at death, and broader social and cultural interests of the members of the cohort. It reveals the role that could be played by the nascent professions in this period in promoting rapid social mobility. The group of medical practitioners selected for this analysis did not come from affluent or professional families but profited from their years in the army to build up a solid and sometimes spectacular fortune, marry into the professions, and place their sons in professional careers. The study contributes to our understanding of Britishness in the period, since the majority of the cohort came from small-town and rural Scotland and Ireland but seldom found their wives in the native country and frequently settled in London and other English cities, where they often became pillars of the community.

The precepts laid down are the result of the experience acquired in the war in the Peninsula, from the first battle of Rolia in 1808, to the last in Belgium, of Waterloo in 1815They have been the means of saving the lives, and of relieving, if not even of preventing, the miseries of thousands of our fellow-creatures throughout the civilized world.George James Guthrie is one of the unsung heroes of the Peninsular War and Waterloo, and of British military medicine. He was a guiding light in surgery. He was not only a soldier's surgeon and a hands-on doctor, he also set a precedent by keeping records and statistics of cases. While the innovations in the medical services of the French Republic and Empire have been publicized, a military surgeon of the caliber of Guthrie has been largely ignored by students of the period until now. Michael Crumplin, in this comprehensive and graphic study of this remarkable doctor, follows him through his career in the field and recognizes his exceptional contribution to British military medicine and to Wellington's army.

Standing armies and navies brought with them military medical establishments, shifting the focus of disease management from individuals to groups. Prevention, discipline, and surveillance produced results, and career opportunities for physicians and surgeons. All these developments had an impact on medicine and society, and were in turn influenced by them. The essays within examine these phenomena, exploring the imperial context, nursing and medicine in Britain, naval medicine, as well as the relationship between medicine, the state and society. British Military and Naval Medicine challenges the notion that military medicine was, in all respects, ‘a good thing’. The so-called monopoly of military medicine and the authoritarian structures within the military were complex and, at times, successfully contested. Sometimes changes were imposed that cannot be characterised as improvements. British Military and Naval Medicine also points to opportunities for further research in this exciting field of study.