Ebstein availed himself of the publications of J. L. R. de Kerckhove, Rene
Bourgeois, J. Lemazurier, and Joh. von Scherer, and the manuscript of
Harnier from which writings he collected all that refers to the diseases
of the grand army. It may not be out of place to quote the interesting
writings of de Kerckhove concerning the army physicians and Napoleon and
his soldiers:
De Kerckhove left Mayence on March 6th., 1812, attached to the headquarters
of the 3rd. corps, commanded by Ney; at Thorn he joined those braves with
whom he entered Moscow on September 14th. and with whom he left on October
19th. When he returned to Berlin in the beginning of February, 1813, the
3rd. corps was discharged. He writes: The army was not only the most
beautiful, but there was none which included so many brave warriors, more
heroes. How many parents have cried over the loss of their children
tenderly raised by them, how many sons, the only hope and support of their
father and mother, have perished, how many bonds of friendship have been
severed, how many couples have been separated forever, how many unfortunate
ones drawn into misery? An army extinguished by hunger and cold!
Giving credit to the physicians and surgeons who took part in that
unfortunate expedition he says: With what noble zeal they tried to do their
duties. The horror of the privations, the severity of the climate and
fatigues and the want of eatables and medicines which characterized the
hospitals and ambulances in Russia, have not discouraged the physicians so
far as to become indifferent to the terrible fate reserved for the sick.
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