The only writer who has described
necropsies is von Scherer. Some of the physicians speak only of the sick
and the diseases, as Bourgeois, who says that on the march to Russia during
the sultry weather the many cadavers of horses putrefied rapidly, filling
the air with miasms, and that this caused much disease; further, in
describing the retreat he only says that the army was daily reduced in
consequence of the constant fighting, the privations and diseases,
without enumerating which diseases were prevailing; only in a note
attached to his booklet he mentions that the most frequent of the
ravaging diseases of that time and during the Russian campaign in general
was typhus, and there can be no doubt it was petechial or exanthematic
typhus, for which the English literature has the vague name typhus fever.
Very interesting are the historical data given by Ebstein: "As is well
known, the fourth and most severe typhus period of the eighteenth century
began with the wars of the French revolution and ended only during the
second decade of the nineteenth century with the downfall of the Napoleonic
empire and the restoration of peace in Germany." During the Russian
campaign the conditions for spreading the disease were certainly the most
favorable imaginable.
Krantz, whom I shall quote later on, has described the ophthalmy prevailing
in York's corps as being of a mild character.
Quite different forms reigned among the soldiers on their retreat from
Moscow.
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