Medicine & Duty. A War Diary [1928, British Army]

Medicine & Duty. A War Diary [1928, British Army]

Author: Harold Dearden (1882-1962)

Year: 1928

Digitised by Google Books from the collection at the University of California https://books.google.com/books?id=w4NHAAAAIAAJ The author was “Late Capt. R.A.M.C.” [Royal Army Medical Corps] who joined up in 1914. At length he reached France by going out under the aegis of the Red Cross. Initially he worked in a Base Hospital, then later joined a Field Ambulance, before being appointed a Battalion Medical Officer. He was invalided from the Army shortly before the Armistice. The Introduction explains the title “When a soldier presented himself for treatment, especially in or near the trenches, his physician- by much training - was led to adopt towards him an attitude of mind guaranteed to ruin that same physician in the shortest possible time in any other place on earth. That is to say, he endeavoured to prove, exclusively to his own satisfaction, that there was nothing whatever the matter with his patient; and the fact that the latter rarely accepted his diagnosis did not in the least degree affect the nature of his treatment. Having arrived at this conclusion (and to the sufferer it must have seemed that nothing short of an audible death - rattle could prevent him from doing so) he