ABSTRACT
Medical aid for soldiers had been improving steadily since the mid-nineteenth century, not least because of the introduction of conscription in many countries, based on nationalist sentiments, which obliged the state to pay more attention to military medicine. Conscription was also one of the reasons why the Red Cross, established in the 1860s, began to succeed where its forerunners had failed. It was an organization that offered the political and military authorities the possibility of giving a humanitarian gloss to military imperatives, and at minimal cost. The medical profession generally had no objection to being incorporated into the military world, and medical men to make increasing use of military metaphors, just as military men increasingly began to use medical metaphors. With improved health care, wounds overtook disease as the principal cause of death in wartime. The percentage of wounded who died – based on outcomes for those who reached hospital alive – was reduced from fifteen in the nineteenth century to eight in the years 1914-18. Despite increased firepower, the ratio of dead (men who died more or less immediately of their wounds) to wounded, which as we have seen was roughly one to four, remained steady. It seems that around one in five wounds was almost instantly fatal, irrespective of the weapon that caused it. Aside from pure chance, the differences between army units in this respect reflect the regularity with which they were involved in heavy fighting and the ways the armies to which they belonged adjusted their strategies and tactics to the prevailing conditions.
