[RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.]

The Russo-Japanese War. Medical and sanitary reports from officers attached to the Japanese and Russian forces in the field.

London, printed for his Majesty’s Stationery Office by Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd., 1908. 8vo (235 x 150 mm), pp. ix, [i, blank], 571, [6, advertisements], with 24 plates (15 folding), 55 photographic reproductions, seven folding plates in pocket of inside back cover, and an errata slip; original green cloth; a few small stains to front and back covers; corners bumped and foot of spine slightly frayed. First edition. ‘This volume contains a selection of reports, principally by Lieut.-Colonel W. G. Macpherson, C.M.G., Royal Army Medical Corps, which have a special bearing upon the medical services and sanitary conditions in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War’ (p. iii).‘From the perspective of the development of military medicine, the Russo-Japanese War was one of the most important wars in history. Both Japan and Russia developed and introduced major medical innovations in the treatment of battle casualties and disease that set new standards for the rest of the armies of the world. Improving greatly on the American and German models, the Japanese were the first to introduce a thoroughly modern military medical system that integrated all the major elements of casualty care and disease prevention into a complete command structure. The Japanese army was the first to require a medical plan as part of the combat operations order, the first to place the chief of medical services within the general staff structure, the first to provide full rank and status to medical corps officers within combat theaters of operations, and the first to create an effective independent medical supply service with its own transport . . . . Given the generally backward state of Russian medicine and the almost premodern condition of the Russian military administrative structure, it is surprising that the Russians should have made the major advances in the treatment of psychiatric casualties that they did. It is no exaggeration to say that the Russian army established the modern foundations of military psychiatry both organizationally and clinically . . . . When taken together, then, the Russo-Japanese War was a period of major innovation in military medicine. It was a time when modern military medicine, both somatic and psychiatric, made its initital debut’ (Gabriel & Metz, A history of military medicine pp. 238–9).

• GBP 375.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: T2679

• Antiquariat: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)