Surgery during the Napoleonic Wars

[Von_Clausewitz]

We all know the Napoleonic Wars from the beautiful paintings including charges from numerous regiments / armies on the battlefield. But as with every war, it has it's downsides. I've always been interested in surgery during the Napoleonic Wars and i thought i'd share some sources if anyone would want to read up on it. I'm in no way a professional so i'm not sure if the sources i'll provide are  historically accurate (in a way that EVERYTHING of the articles is correct) but i tried to put as many useful links as possible.

A video showing some of the surgeries performed during the Napoleonic Wars;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctKKpBTWwwo[/youtube]

A small article on Surgery during the Napoleonic wars (Includes Larrey);
http://www.napoleonicwarsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=443



Above you see one of the famous first ambulances used on the battlefield, invented by the young French surgeon Dominique-Jean Larrey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Jean_Larrey).
Inspired by horse-drawn "flying artillery" he developed a "flying ambulance." This ambulance volante combined with Larrey’s development of the concept of triage became integral to Napoleon’s army.

A small article about the ''Flying Ambulances'';
http://www.acep.org/About-Us/The-Revolutionary-Flying-Ambulance-of-Napoleon-s-Surgeon/



A small biography of Dominique Jean-Larrey;
http://www.arcdetriomphe.info/officers/larrey/

An article about medicine in the Napoleonic Wars (includes Percy);
http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/riaudwars.htm

A very useful research into both Percy and Larrey;
http://urgentologue.free.fr/dmdocuments/histoire/Larrey/Larrey%20-%20Percy.pdf



A very small biography of Percy, it's in English but if you can read French click the French tab for more information;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Percy (English Version)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Percy (French Version)

The other troopers – not from the Imperial Guard – were cared for by the less well known Pierre-Francois Baron de Percy. He became chief surgeon of the Grande Armée in 1807. He is also known for having invented the “chirurgie mobile” where surgeons, their instruments and stretch bearers were brought close to the front from where they would jump off their “wurst” – a large and long 4 wheel carriages- to take care of the wounded in their immediate sector. These surgeons carried all of their medicine and instruments with them in their “wurzt”, making them better equipped for handling the wounded. (http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85193)



Hope this provides some information on surgery/battlefield medicine during the Napoleonic Wars. If anyone has some useful links post them here so i can add them to the OP.

[Archduke Sven]

kool stuff, i've read some of it before but it's definetly useful for those wanting to know more about the medics and hospitals of the era.

[joer5835]

This reminds me how glad I am that I live in the 21st century where a small needle sting is all I need to worry about.

God, I hate needles....

[SeanBeansShako]

It is nice to live in an era where our doctors don't cut our hair or do our teeth too.

There are some really interesting but graphic pictures of the wounded at Waterloo drawn up by the Surgeons there studying as well as healing battlefield damage to the human body.

[ClearlyInvsible]

Ah, 19th century medicine. Where the cure for all battlefield ailments was make the guy drink a ton of liquor and then chop off whatever got shot.

[Duuring]

A few little jokes are no problem guys, but remember that most surgeons actually knew what they were doing, saved lives and more then once got wounded or even killed themselves while taking care of the wounded. The surgeons were of course limited by 19th century medical science, but even with that limitation they sometimes did amazing stuff.

A Dutch surgeon got hit by a Howitsershell-fragment at Quatre-bras, in the legs. He returned to aide his battalion throughout the battle of Waterloo - Walking on two make-shift crutches. The batallion commander actually wrote a letter to his commanding general asking why the surgeon, whose name was Wilson, didn't get a medal for that.

[ClearlyInvsible]

Oh I'm not saying the Surgeons didn't do everything in their power, I'm just saying that in the 19th century humanity unfortunately focused more on war then anything else.

[Nipplestockings]

Oh I'm not saying the Surgeons didn't do everything in their power, I'm just saying that in the 19th century humanity unfortunately focused more on war then anything else.

I wouldn't say that was true. The lack of medical technology was often easily made up for in the quick thinking, extreme diligence, and cleverness of surgeons of the time. While it's true that often for extreme injuries the most that doctors could do was administer lots of alcohol and then proceed with an amputation, there are stories of surgeons saving soldiers from seemingly mortal wounds by ingeniously cutting off fingers in exactly the right place and at the right time, instead of entire arms, thus preventing the spread of gangrene and other infections before it was too late. People weren't somehow less intelligent simply because their understanding of science wasn't as developed at the time.

[ClearlyInvsible]

Well yes, but the basic principle is the same. Chop it off if it's green.

To think how often I take penicillin for granted...

[Matthew]

I thought drinking alcohol was the last think you want someone to do before removing a their limb.

[Nipplestockings]

I thought drinking alcohol was the last think you want someone to do before removing a their limb.

More like slathering it on the wounded area to numb the pain and stop infection.

[Duuring]

Alcohol sure stops infection, but it hurts like the devil.

[ClearlyInvsible]

You drank it mainly to numb some of the pain, from what I hear.

[Duuring]

Well, mostly they would try to get you as drunk as possible because you'd struggle less.

[SeanBeansShako]

What makes me cringe is the thought of some of the more poorly trained surgeons just using their bare fingers to probe for and try to get the ball from the less deeper flesh wounds ugh.