Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 | Page 7

effectively dried up the mucous membrane of the mouth in patients not breathing through the nose, and encouraged the formation of large cracks. Pneumonia was rare, and this was rendered the more striking from the comparatively large number of men who contracted the disease on board ship on the voyage out from England.
As will be gathered from the above, medical disease seldom called for the aid of the surgeon. Abdominal section was occasionally considered in cases of perforation in enteric fever, and was, I believe, a few times performed, but as far as I know without success. It was also proposed to treat some of the severe dysentery cases by colotomy, but I never saw the method tried. As far as I was concerned I never met with a case of either disease I thought suitable for the treatment. I saw one case in which an abscess of the liver had followed an attack of enteric, which had been successfully treated by incision, and a few cases of tropical abscess which probably came into the country were also subjected to operation. Some cases of appendicitis, as would be expected, also needed surgical treatment. In a few instances empyema followed influenza, and a few cases of mastoid suppuration had to be dealt with.
Of surgical diseases the one most special to the campaign, although not of great importance, was the veldt sore. This was a small localised suppuration most common on the hands and neck, but sometimes invading the whole trunk, more particularly the lower extremities however, when the covered parts of the body were attacked. The sores were no doubt the result of local infections; they reminded me most of the sores seen on the hands of plasterers, and I think there is no doubt the dust was responsible for them. I think piles were somewhat more prevalent than they should have been among the men, but this was probably dependent on the strain involved in def?cation in the squatting position, since the soldiers were for the most part regularly attentive to the calls of nature.
I saw a good many cases of lightning stroke, and some were fatal. Sunstroke was not common, and, considering the heat, it was very remarkable how little the men suffered from this condition. This was no doubt in part attributable to the absence of the possibility of getting alcoholic drinks, but it is not common for any one in South Africa to suffer in this way, probably as a result of the continuous nature of the sunshine.
In spite of the labours of hospital surgeons at home, it was rather instructive to see the number of men who suffered with hernia, varicocele, and varicose veins to a sufficient degree to necessitate going to the base. The experience quite sufficed to explain the trouble which is taken to prevent men with these complaints entering the service.
GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NUMBER OF MEN KILLED AND WOUNDED
I will now pass to the question of the proportionate frequency with which the men were killed or wounded during the present campaign. I propose to take only one series of battles, with which I was personally acquainted throughout, to illustrate this point. This seems the more satisfactory course to follow, since the number of casualties is still undergoing continuous gradual increase, and besides this the warfare has assumed a peculiar and irregular form, statistics from which scarcely possess general application.
The battles included, those of the first Kimberley Relief Force, were fought under fair average conditions as to the nature of the ground. In the first two the defending enemy occupied heights, in the two following the ground advanced over by our men was comparatively even; thus at Modder River there was only a gradual slope upwards, and at Magersfontein the advanced trenches of the Boers were only slightly above the level of the ground over which the advance was made. At the same time, at the latter battle a great number of the Boers engaged were on the sides of the hill well above the advanced trenches. In no case were the Boers in such a position as to have to fire upwards, to them a considerable advantage. It must also be noted that throughout the Boers were able to rest their rifles; hence the fire should have been at any rate of an average degree of accuracy. In the advances of our own men, anthills and stones were practically the only cover to be obtained, and little or no help was given by variations in the general surface. All these points seem to favour a large proportional number of hits on the part of the riflemen. I very much regret that I am unable to say what was the proportional number of shell wounds among the men hit, but I can say