El papel de la Sanidad Militar en la campaña de Marruecos (1859-1860)

Abstract

In the Army and the Navy there was a lack of regulations and doctrine, sanitary material was inappropriate, non-homogeneous, outdated and, above all desperately scarce, sometimes even remaining from the previous Carlist wars; the chain of evacuation was capricious, at the mercy of the medical officer in charge, while the military doctor was a kind of civil servant subject to military jurisdiction when convenient, with no authority and extremely discredited, resented and handicapped, to that extent that young people no longer wanted to become military doctors. We intend to exhibit for the first time a series of circumstances that make this campaign a turning point for the Military Health Service. Results: we established the gradation of the sanitary formations and the chain of evacuation. The attention to casualties was exemplary: battalion aid stations were very close to the first line and almost always subjected to fire; however, all injuries were attended and all wounded soldiers ready for evacuation for the next treatment step during the very same day. The majority of the soldiers, who had participated in a battle and had been injured, were in the hospitals of Ceuta or the peninsula the next day or even the same night, most of them already having been operated and with their fractures reduced. For the first time The Spanish Military Health Service used a scientific breakthrough - chloroform anesthesia for surgery. The sanitary units, highly requested, were created. This was the first military campaign in which the soldiers were provided with tents for accommodations and for hospitals and the first campaign in which, embarrassing as it sounds, soldiers´ meals were including meat. Discussion: We lack points of reference to discuss our results since this campaign has not been treated in depth, as for the Military Health Services. Therefore, we present them in the following pages, expecting possible critics and discrepancies, but also consents. As the only exception, we praise the use of anesthesia for the first time on the battlefield. Conclusions: for The Military Health, the campaign of 1859-1860 represented: 1o. Use of the anesthesia for the first time in campaign. 2o. Records of the name, grade and destination of every participating military physician and of all causalities. 3o. before and an after in regards to campaign. 4o. A beginning of health doctrine as we know it. 5o Creation of the first medical units. 6o. Preferred approach practiced by Spanish surgeons is conservative. 7o. There are no uniform criteria in articles of military history on the types of casualties