War and the Militarization of British Army Medicine, 1793-1830 (Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine)

"Throughout the following chapters a handful of senior medical officers feature prominently as their influence on the development of military medicine is traced through their participation in campaign after campaign from 1793 to 1815. These men headed a department which expanded tenfold over the course of the Wars, providing vital opportunities for experiment and implementation of new ideas. It housed a large pool of medical recruits eager to learn and get ahead. " During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, British doctors travelled in unprecedented numbers to foreign locations where they were confronted with battlefield injuries, virulent and mysterious diseases, and complex military politics that few had encountered before. Drawing on rare manuscript sources, Kelly examines how nearly twenty-five years of sustained warfare affected the professional identity embraced by those doctors and thoroughly militarized their approach to medicine. This study demonstrates the emergence 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. --Publisher description 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.