The Role of War
What has war got to do with the history of medicine?
When wars happen people get injured. This means that surgeons get lots of experience of dealing with different kinds of wounds. As the nature of warfare has changed over time, through the use of new types of weapons, this has led to a greater understanding of the way in which to treat different kinds of injury. This understanding can then be applied in non military situations: for example, treatments for burns developed by military surgeons can be used for people who have been burnt in a house fire.
What examples are there of warfare leading to improvements in medical care?
There are lots of examples. Here I’ll provide one example from the Ancient World, one from the Renaissance and one from the Twentieth century.
The Ancient World: The Romans relied on their army to ensure the security of their empire and to expand it. They invested heavily in ensuring that the army was well trained, able to move around quickly and able to be treated quickly and effectively if injured. This in turn meant that the Romans invested in aqueducts and sewers in towns with a military presence and that they established a good communications network. The purpose was always to maintain military might but the outcome is a very good public health system that is of benefit to civilians as well as to soldiers.
The Renaissance: During the Renaissance Pare made his breakthroughs with the use of ligatures and of potions. Whilst chance played a role in his use of potions, neither of these developments would have happened if it was not for the fact that he was a battlefield surgeon.
Are the improvements all surgical?
There have been lots of surgical improvements as a result of warfare. From the development of different ways of extracting things from the body (arrows, bullets etc); dealing with burns; the development of ligatures and war leading to the introduction of blood banks and increased use of x-rays before surgery is performed. Medical developments caused by warfare aren’t all surgical though. The poor condition of soldiers signing up during the Boer war was one of the reasons why National Insurance was introduced, The First World War led to further welfare legislation and the Second World War was a factor leading to the introduction of the National Health Service.
How does the role of war link in with other factors?
Its very rare that only one factor leads to an improvement. Penicillin is a good example of this. It had been discovered by chance and researched later on by a scientific team. Warfare provided the reason why governments were willing to invest heavily in it and thats the reason why it became so widely available at that time. Without the war the funding might not have been sufficient for it to make much difference for quite a long time – but it was other factors that led to it being discovered and researched. Likewise warfare was one of the main reasons for increased government investment in welfare and health. However it also required factors such as changing attitudes, research and reports and public pressure to get the changes made.
Got another example of war affecting the development of medicine? Feel free to add it as a comment, there are plenty of examples not covered in this guide!
