Book Description

Excerpt from Medical Services, General History, Vol. 2: The Medical Services on the Western Front, and During the Operations in France and Belgium in 1914 and 1915 HE general scope of the series of volumes dealing with the Medical History Of the War has been indicated in the Preface to the first volume of the General History of the Medical Services. Since the publication Of this in December 1921 the volumes on the Diseases, Surgery and the Hygiene of the War and on Pathology have appeared and the three remaining volumes of the General History have been prepared, although some time must elapse before all these are published. The compilation of the volume on Statistics is being under taken by the Ministry Of Pensions, which is in possession of the necessary data. The present volume, together with the greater part of the third volume of the General History, deals with the Medical Services of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium. It has been compiled almost entirely from the war diaries of medical units, from the Office files and diaries of the Administrative Medical Services, and from the official despatches; but as some of the war diaries are missing altogether and many fail to record facts which are Of import ance in compiling a history, several gaps have had to be filled from personal diaries and information Obtained from various other sources. The war diaries are, in fact, of very unequal value. The most useful have been those which give Sketch maps, details of the position and work of the medical units and changes in organization and policy, but these important details have been omitted in a considerable number of instances. The campaign on the Western Front was characterized, so far as the Medical Services were concerned, by the unparalleled number of wounded who came under their charge. In com piling the history Oi the Medical Services Of this front, it has on this account been considered desirable, after a more general description Of the administrative services and the medical units, to present a detailed account of their strategical and tactical employment in the various battles and phases of the campaign. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.