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The Medical Front WWI
This Section of WWI/WWW is concerned with all Medical aspects, Military and Civilian, of World War One, the Great War, The First World War

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Medical, Surgical and Pathological
This section includes articles, contemporary books and extracts from contemporary sources on: 

  • Influenza, 
  • Trench Fever, 
  • Lice, 
  • Diabetes in the pre-insulin era, 
  • Military Surgery, 
  • Typhoid Fever, 
  • Sanitation and Hygiene, 
  • Venereology 
  • Psychiatry.


      Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 The pathology of influenza in France, by Dr. S. W. Patterson, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on March 6th. 1920

      Blood Transfusion in the early years of the 20th Century - Extracts from the book "Blood Transfusion" by Dr Geoffrey Keynes, 1922.

  • Gas warfare in the Great War This includes the complete Manual of Gas Warfare published by HMSO, 1941, based on data from 1918 with the 3rd Edition of the Atlas of Gas Poisoning, published in 1938. There are also a series of photographs illustrating how horses, mules, dogs and pigeons were protected from gas poisoning.


  • WWI Dental Dental services in the Australian Army at the outbreak of World War I were non-existent and this article describes how attempts were made to remedy this situation.

  • Experiences with the Australian Army Medical Corps at Gallipoli  by Dr John Corbin, Major with the 1st Australian Clearing Hospital.  The author recounted his experiences in Gallipoli from the landing at Anzac Cove to the attack at Suvla Bay and these were published in the Medical Journal of Australia in February 1916.

  • WW1 Nursing Nursing Documents, including letters from France published in book form during The Great War
  • With the Serbian Mission to Serbia in 1914-1915 An extract from the book "Surgeon's Journey" by James Johnston Abraham, CBE., DSO, FRCS, Published by Heinemann, London. This describes his service in charge of a Serbian under-equipped, overworked hospital that was exposed to the great Typhus Epidemic of 1915 where a million people were affected and tens of thousands died.
  • The German Treatment of Injured Prisoners of War. Extracts from an Australian Official Publication, "How the Germans Treated Australian Prisoners of War", taken from the statements of repatriated Australian WW1 servicemen. Issued by the Defence Department, 1919, Melbourne, Australia.
  • The Route of Evacuation of the wounded from the battlefield. from articles in the British Medical Journal of April-October 1917. These include evacuation from the trenches to the Advanced Dressing Station, descriptions of the role of the battalion medical officers, Field Ambulances, Casualty Clearing Stations, Stationary Hospitals, Ambulance Trains and Barges and Hospital Ships.
  • Hospital Ships   List of British Hospital Ships sunk by enemy action.

 

The preparation of such a large undertaking must always be incomplete but the following material is actively sought:

  1. Contemporary letters and diaries, with medical content.
  2. Contemporary articles from the medical journals of the time.
  3. Selections from contemporary books with medical content
  4. Complete contemporary medical books.
  5. Contemporary photographs or pictures with a medical content, either clinical photographs or pertaining to nonclinical aspects of medicine. These will include photographs or pictures of hospitals or aid posts, groups or individual doctors, nurses or photographs or pictures of other members of army medical corps such as stretcher bearers.
  6. Modern articles written specifically for the Medical Front, concerning medical aspects of WWI, or short biographical sketches of doctors or nurses.


 

Contributions to this section are very welcome but of necessity there are caveats:-

Copyright permission is essential for those items still in copyright.

We are endeavouring to maintain the quality of any modern articles that will be published in the site as being of the same quality that is required for academic or professional journals. This means that all original contributions will need to be referenced and, as with academic or professional journals, we reserve the right to submit any article to our panel of medical historical referees.


For further information, or for correspondence,
please contact Dr. M. Geoffrey Miller,
site author, The Medical Front WWI


Return to WWI Archive Main Page

The Medical Front WWI was originally part of Carrie: The First Full Text On-Line Electronic Library. Related: WWW-VL: World War One History: 1914-1918



The Medical Front WWI is maintained by George Laughead, manager of the United States History Index and Kansas History. Thanks to Dr. Lynn H. Nelson, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Kansas. Hosted at www Virtual Libraries @ www.vlib.us.

Created: Monday, April 07, 1997

Last Updated: 11th. November, 2010