Medical Hygeine

Medical Services
Surgery
Treatment of Wounds
Medical Hygeine
Evacuation of the Wounded
Amputation Instruments and Chart
Causes of death in British Army hospitals 1812-1814
Lists of British officers wounded and killed in the Peninsula

Basically hygeine, as we know it today, did not exist. Hospitals and treatment stations were overcrowded, poorly ventilated and filthy. Few soldiers had any idea of personal hygeine and no thought was given to sterilising instruments.

Surgeons would reuse the same scalpel, saw or set of needles over and over again and if they washed their hands it was only in a bowl full of water that soon became almost as filthy as the instruments themselves.

There were no disinfectants and surgeon's smocks or aprons served nicely as initially a thing on which to wipe their hands and then as the perfect breeding ground for germs.