Justice to the Maimed Soldier: Nursing, Medical Care and Welfare for Sick and Wounded Soldiers and their Families during the English Civil Wars and ... ...

by Eric Gruber Von Arni

In the popular imagination, the notion of military medicine prior to the twentieth century is dominated by images of brutal ignorance, superstition and indifference. In an age before the introduction of anaesthetics, antibiotics and the sterilisation of instruments, it is perhaps unsurprising that such a stereotyped view has developed, but to what degree is it correct? Whilst it is undoubtedly true that by modern standards, the medical care provided in previous centuries was crude and parochial, it would be wrong to think that serious attempts were not made by national bodies to provide care for those injured in the military conflicts of the past. In this ground breaking study, it is argued that both sides involved in the civil wars that ravaged the British Isles during the mid seventeenth century made concerted efforts to provide medical care for their sick and wounded troops. Through the use of extensive archival sources, Dr Gruber von Arni has pieced together the history of the welfare provided by both Parliamentarian and Royalist causes, and analyses the effectiveness of the systems they set up.

Genres: History

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few people have asked me about reading on Puritans and I’ve noted that pretty much any modern history book will provide a version that confounds the popular narrative, but I’m currently reading a book that is just fascinating and gives huge insight into the mentality of the men who fought the civil war.
Eric Gruber Von Arni was himself a military nurse. I think Justice to the Maimed Soldier started as his PhD with Gerald Aylmer, one of the great early modern historians
The book has a short chapter on Royalist medical care for its soldiers: careless, poorly organised, and soldiers regarded as disposable.
The rest of the book is about the Parliamentary establishment of hospitals, local services, actual medical care surgeons v physicians (tip, pick the Surgeons, they followed Paracelsus, the Physicians preferred Galen: the Surgeons also tended to be Puritans and the physicians Royalist; the surgeons shared knowledge and techniques, the Physicians got upset when one of their number “revealed” their secrets), nursing which is remarkably ‘modern’ and I’ve just got to the bit where soldiers were sent to Bath to take the waters. Soldiers and widows received pensions.
Although Parliament struggled to find the money at times and particularly by the end, the sense of responsibility for the men injured in their service is strong.
There is also a very good chapter on the use of herbals, dietary beliefs, and cleanliness in the wards invaluable for any fiction writer. Come on! Someone write me a Surgeon /Nurse romance set in 1650! (Note that nurses-who tended to be widows- were fired for marrying patients).
He’s also rather good on framing the Reformation as effectively the dissolution of a form of welfare state, and in demonstrating that the value of women’s work was recognised.