An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British Military

Monro, Donald, 1727-1802Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 445K words
Chapters: 45

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British militaryAuthor: Monro, Donald, 1727-1802,Language: English, Class: RC: Medicine: Internal medicine, Release Date: Feb 21, 2010

Editor's review

This is a record of military medical observations left by the eighteenth-century British army surgeon Donald Monro, and an early English-language work to discuss the common diseases of armies systematically. Its value lies not in style but in its documentary evidence: it records in detail the relationship between camp conditions, seasonal change, and the distribution of disease, offering first-hand material for the study of early modern military medicine, the history of public health, and eighteenth-century medical practice. As a public-domain e-book, it preserves the original wording and terminology, and reading it requires some background in medical history or history. It is suited to research use or selective reading rather than cover-to-cover leisure reading. If one treats it as a window onto the sanitary predicament of early modern armies, one finds many old problems of crowded camps, diet, and infectious disease that form an interesting contrast with later public health reforms.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers in the history of medicine and public health who need primary sources to support their work
Enthusiasts of military history who want to understand disease and camp sanitation in the eighteenth-century British army
History students using it as English reading material on early modern medical records
Serious readers interested in public-domain classics and early medical texts

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking popular medical stories or modern health guides
Readers with limited English proficiency or unfamiliar with eighteenth-century medical language
Readers seeking a complete narrative or a literary reading experience

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to understand the book's framework of disease classification, then select chapters on infectious disease and camp sanitation for close reading
Prepare a glossary of eighteenth-century medical terms, and verify obsolete disease names before continuing
Read it alongside sources on later public health reform, noting differences between the book's explanations of disease causes and present-day concepts
Use it as a reference work, excerpting by topic rather than reading straight through

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a medical record?

It is the eighteenth-century British army surgeon Donald Monro's record of observations on the common diseases of the British army. It is a document in the history of medicine, not a novel, and has no fictional plot. It should be read as historical material, not as a modern medical guide.

Can I read it without a medical background?

You can, but it will be difficult. The book uses a great deal of eighteenth-century medical language and disease names, and its mode of argument differs from modern medicine. It is advisable to gain some basic knowledge of early modern medical history first, or to read with glosses on terminology; otherwise it is easy to remain at the literal level and miss the meaning.

What should I keep in mind when reading the e-book edition?

This is a public-domain electronic text that preserves original spelling and wording, and may show period features in layout or punctuation. It is advisable to use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation, and to record obsolete terms as you go for easy cross-reference.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Monro, Donald, 1727-1802 Author · Scottish · 1727–1802

Donald Monro (1727–1802) was a Scottish physician and writer. Public information about his life is limited; what can be confirmed is mainly his nationality, his dates, and one representative work. He wrote An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military, a study of the illnesses most commonly found among British troops and a piece of military medical research. The collection also includes his medical writings, which show that his work centered on the observation of disease and on medical practice, with an emphasis on practical records rather than theoretical exposition. Such works offer first-hand material for later understanding of military medicine and common diseases of the period, and reflect the way an eighteenth-century physician combined clinical practice with writing.