Disease v. Wounds

New Zealand Tablet, 2 August 1906, Page 22

Disease v. Wounds

Till the Japanese army medical corps showed how to conduct a campaign from the hygienic point of \iew, disease^ not bvllet or sabre — was the crowned king of terrors in war. In a recent letter to the London ' Times,' Mr. Brodriek, ex-Secretary for war, gives figures for South Africa, which, while they compare favorably with those of the Crimea, serve sufficiently to strip the tinsel from the pomp and circumstance of campaigning. ' The deaths per 1000 were,' says he, '69 from disease and 42 from wounds, but the admissions to hospitals were 71(J per 1000 fr o m disease and 34 from wounds. In other words, about 450,000 were passed through the hospitals for disease during the war, and 14,800 deaths ocourred, whilst the admissions for injuries in action we~e only 22,000. The two great scourges of armies in the field are dysentery and enteric fever. These two diseases alone caused 74,000 admissions to hospital and 9200 deaths in South Africa. Yet both are, in medical opinion, largely preventable.'