Observations on the Diseases of the Army. With Notes by Benjamin Rush

Bound in full leather. Hardcover. Library stamps and markings. Poor binding. Spine ends chipped with loss. Front gutter weakened, starting to detach. Some page ends chipped with loss. Marginal staining. Owner's name on title page. Sold with all faults. In this work Pringle discusses "the basic principles of military sanitation and stressed the proper ventilation of military quarters regardless of their location" (Heirs of Hippocrates 879). "Pringle's great work in life was the reform of military medicine and sanitation. His experience . was reinforced by systematic observation and scientific research. He was among the first to see the importance of putrefactive processes in the production of disease, and probably quite the first to apply his scientific practices in the prevention of such diseases as dysentery and hospital fever." DNB. "His books lay down the principles of military sanitation and ventilation of barracks, gaols, hospital ships, etc. He did much to improve the lot of soldiers, and it was due to remarks in his book that foot soldiers were given blankets when on duty. The preface of the book includes an account of the origin of the Red Cross idea" Garrison Morton. Born in 1707, Pringle studied medicine at Leiden and Paris before practicing in Edinburgh. In 1744 he became physician general to the British army and he was present at the battle of Culloden. In 1752 the first of the many editions of Pringle's Diseases of the Army was published. In the volume Pringle identified hospitals as a major cause of sickness and began to think in terms of septic and antiseptic. Pringle felt that fevers, dysentery, and jail fever were the three most prevalent and fatal diseases affecting armies and although he was wrong about the way they were transmitted (he blamed putrid air) his recommendations for prevention helped to control epidemics. From the library Dr. Owen Hannaway. Hannaway was director of the Center for the History and Philosophy of Science at Johns Hopkins University. He authored numerous books and served as an editor of academic magazines in the history of science. Partial list of publications: Chemists and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry (1975); Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science (1985); The Evolution of Technology (1989); Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century (1994); and The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts (1996).…