All the hospitals
between the Vistula and Berlin, constantly overfilled, were thoroughly
infected, and thus transformed into regular pest-houses exhaling perdition
to every one who entered, the physicians and attendants included. On the
other hand, most of the patients who were treated on the march recovered.
Of 31 cases of typhus of the 2d. battalion of the infantry guards
transported from Tilsit to Tuchel, only one died, while the remaining 30
regained their health completely, a statistical result as favorable as has
hardly ever happened in the best regulated hospital and which is the more
surprising on account of the severe form of the disease at that time. An
equally favorable result was obtained in the first East Prussian regiment
of infantry on the march from the Vistula to the Spree.
There was not a single death on the march; of 330 patients 300 recovered,
30 were sent into hospitals of Elbing, Maerkisch Friedland, Conitz, and
Berlin, and the same excellent results were reported from other divisions
of the corps where the same method had been followed.
A most remarkable observation among the immense number of patients was that
they seldom presented a stage of convalescence. Three days after they had
been free from fever for 24 hours they were fit, without baggage, for a
half or even a whole day's march. If the recovery had not been such a
speedy one, says Krantz, how could all the wagons have been secured in that
part of the country devastated by war for the transportation of the many
hundreds of sick.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195