Across the world military employs medical doctors in its workforce. This tradition is ancient, and can be traced back to Roman times. While primary task of these military medics was to keep armies fighting fit, and to address injuries and causalities during wars. However, some medics employed in the armed forces made their mark in science, public health, and even international relations. A chosen few have basked in glory and have featured in postage stamps.
Two doctors: James Lind in British Navy and Ronald Ross in British Indian Army
James Lind (1716 – 1794) was a physician in Royal British Navy. He proved that oranges and lemons cured scurvy. He elped to improve cleanliness on ships, and also figured out that distilled sea water is fit for drinking. Thus, he was a pioneer in naval medicine.
Ronald Ross (1857 – 1932) was a British doctor who joined Indian Medical Service in the year 1881. He was initially posted in Madras Presidency, and by 1897-98 he had discovered life cycle of malarial parasite. This work earned him 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine. However, he resigned from Indian Medical Service in 1899 and became a faculty at Liverpool school of Tropical Medicine.
A Surgeon in the French Army – Ambroise Pare
Ambroise Paré (1510 – 1590) was a French surgeon, who worked with the armies of successive French monarchs. He is considered one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology and a pioneer in surgical techniques and battlefield medicine, especially in the treatment of wounds. He invented several surgical instruments, and is also famous for his quotes such as “The physician cures, nature heals”. He practiced and popularized techniques for arterial ligatures, and bullet removal from wounds.
Ambulances are born in the French Army – Dominique Larry
Dominique Jean Larrey (1766–1842) is considered as the father of emergency medicine. He initiated modern methods of army surgery, field hospitals and the system of horse carriage carried army ambulance corps. After seeing the speed with which the carriages of French horse artillery units maneuvered across the battlefields, Larrey called them “flying ambulances”. He manned these ambulances with trained crews of drivers, and litter-bearers.
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart (1755 – 1821) was a French physician and popularized use of percussion during medical examination. He was not strictly an army surgeon, however he was chosen by Napoleon to be his physician, and in that capacity he was associated with French Armed forces.
Picque, Roussin and Villemin: Medics in French Military
Robert Picqué (1877–1927), was a pioneer of medical transport by air in the French Army.
François-Cacharie Roussin (1827-1894) was a Pharmacist in French Army, and discovered azo dyes, glycerin, and method for detection of nicotine.
Jean-Antoine Villemin (1827 – 1892) was a Physician in French Army. He demonstrated in 1865 that tuberculosis is infectious. However, at that time there were only a few takers for this theory.
Three French doctors in its Army in Algeria
François Maillot (1804–1894), contributed to malaria research. He discovered that patients with fever (considered as malaria) have changes in their Brain. He found that at autopsy it becomes grey with many tiny dark areas (hemorrhages). In 1834 he successfuly used quinine sulphate for febrile Algerian army staff (1834)
Auguste Nicolas Eugène Millon (1812-1867) was a French Army pharmacist, who worked in Algeria. He is known for Millon test, used to detect for presence of amino-acid tyrosine in proteins.
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1845–1922), won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1907 for discovering that malaria is caused by a protozoa.
Another French Army Doctor begins to control Sleeping sickness
Eugène Jamot (1879- 1937) initially wanted to become a teacher, and got inclined towards medicine only in 1902. Initially he started practicing as a country physician, and in 1911 joined French military. In 1914 at the beginning of the first world war, he left for Equatorial Africa. In Cameroon he got interested in sleeping sickness. He discovered that the tsetse fly was the insect vector of the trypanosome (organism causing the illness).
By sending multiple public health intervention teams in villages, Jamot’s team considerably reduced the incidence of trypanosomiasis, and thus, its transmission. In 1926, by ministerial decree, he became head of the “Permanent Mission for the Prophylaxis of Sleeping Sickness”. Later he was also made director of the Pasteur institute in Congo.
A doctor who helped build the Panama Canal
Walter Reed (1851 – 1902) joined as a physician in the US Army, and later specialized in pathology and bacteriology. His major contribution to public health is the 1901 discovery that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes. While, Walter gave credit for this discovery to Cuban scientist, Carlos Finley. Regardless, this discovery led to mosquito control efforts in the region. This work helped complete the work on the Panama Canal, that was abandoned twenty years ago, as many workers had previously succumbed to yellow fever.
First female medic in the US Army
Mary Edwards Walker (1832 – 1919), was a surgeon during the American civil war. In 1855, she completed her medical education and wanted to join Union Army. She was initially turned down, but was later accepted becoming the first female surgeon in the US Army. In 1864, during the war she crossed enemy lines to treat a wounded soldier, but was arrested as a spy. She was later released on a PoW exchange. Later she campaigned for voting rights for women, but died a year before this was accepted by the US government.
An Army surgeon, who first developed Epidural Anesthesia
In 1901, Fidel Pagés Miravé entered medical school at age of 15 years. In 1908 he completed his medical education and joined Spanish army medical corps. He was a surgeon, and got interested in anesthetic techniques during the first world war. In 1921 he published about a new technique “epidural anesthesia” which he had been practicing for a few years then. However, Pages died in a road traffic accident two years later. His contribution was forgotten, only to be realized about ten years later.
Two doctors in Dutch Navy who worked in South East Asia
Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796 –1866) was a German doctor, who joined Dutch Navy as a ship surgeon in 1822. He worked at Dutch outpost in Japan, and studied of Japanese flora. He also established first school of Western medicine in Japan. His daughter was first female Japanese doctor educated in Western medicine. (See a blog here)
Christiaan Eijkman (1858 – 1930) was trained as a physician in military medical school, and was posted in Java, (now in Indonesia) in 1883. He discovered that a disease beri-beri was caused by poor diet. This led to the discovery of a vitamin, later named as thiamine. He received 1929 Nobel Prize for his discovery. (See details in a blog here).
Surgeons in the Russian and Soviet Armies
Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky (1836 -1904) was a surgeon in the Russian Army. In 1870 he was invited to head the department of surgery at Kiev, but he left this position shortly and worked tirelessly to care for wounded soldiers in Franco-Prussian war. About 10,000 wounded passed through Sklifosovskyi. Moldivia issued a postal stationary featuring him in 2006 on his 170th anniversary.
Nikolay Nilovich Burdenko (1876 – 1946) was Surgeon in the Soviet Red Army during the second world war. He organized medical help and personally operated thousands of people. He also tested and actively applied first antibiotics. Later he went on to establish Neurosurgery in the Soviet union.
Australian Army
Ernest Edward “Weary” Dunlop, (1907 – 1993) was an Australian army surgeon and also a cricketer. In 1942 he was posted in Java, to establish a mobile medical Unit. He was captured by the Japanese together with the hospital he was commanding. He is renowned for his leadership and maintaining the morale of his fellow PoWs.
Romanian Army
Victor Anastasiu joined Romanian Royal Army as a Physician in the year 1913. At that time he was 27, and it was only two years ago in 1911, that aircraft was used in warfare in Europe. He took flight lessons, and obtained a pilot license in 1916. four years later, in 1920 he established the Aeronautical Medical Center. A postage stamp featuring him was issued when this institute completed 75 years
In 1939 Victor Anastasiu was chief of the medical services of the Romanian Royal Air Forces. In 2001 Romania renamed the Aeronautical Medical Center he had established in 1920 after him.
Doctors in the First world war Serbian Army
First world war started on 28 July 1914, when Austria-Hungary (Central Axis power) declared war on Kingdom of Serbia. Shortly thereafter, Russia and France joined the war (supporting Serbia) and Germany in support of Austria-Hungary. Eventually in 1915, Serbians had to retreat, and about a quarter of their army was decimated. In face of this war theater in Serbia, six military doctors were lauded by the country in a postal stamp issue in 2018.
Dr Vojislav Subbotic (1859-1923) is father of Serbian surgery. He constructed a femoral brace, that was used in military medicine till 1950s. Dr William Hunter (1861-1937) was commander of English Medical mission in Serbia in 1915. He undertook a series of steps to prevent Typhus fever and its epidemic in Serbia. Dr Milos Popovic (1876-1954) established the first military dentist station in Belgrade. Dr Edward Ryan (1883-1923) was chief of the American Red Cross mission in Serbia in 1914-15. He coordinated Red Cross program for the Serbian refugees. Dr Mihailo Petrovic (1863-1934) established asepsis techniques in Serbian field military hospitals. Dr Ludwig Hirszfeld (1884-1954) was a bacteriologist in Serbian army. He established disinfection and vaccination protocols in the country, during the war years.
These and many more military medics have played their part, not only during the wars, but also to establish medical systems, making important discoveries and also to further health in entire populations.