At the beginning of the sickness a vomitium of ipecacuanha and tartarus
stibiatus was administered (though on the march no real medical treatment
was attempted); later on aether vitrioli with tinctura valerianae, tinctura
aromatica and finally tinctura chinae composita aurantiorum with good wine,
etc., were given. It is interesting to read Krantz's statement of how much
some physicians were surprised who had been accustomed to treat their
patients in hospitals according to the principles of that period, which
consisted in the exclusion of fresh air and the hourly administration of
medicine. The mortality of those treated on the march in the manner
described was never more than 2 to 3 per cent.
As already mentioned, an epidemic ophthalmy spread simultaneously with
typhus among a large number of the troops returning from Courland,
especially among those who formed the rear guard, in which was the first
East Prussian regiment to which Krantz was attached.
In a far greater proportion the men of the two Prussian cavalry regiments
and artillery batteries which Napoleon had taken with him to Moscow, that
is into ruin, succumbed to the morbid potencies which acted upon them from
all sides.
On March 17th., 1813, York's corps entered Berlin, and from this time on
contagious typhus disappeared almost completely in this army division. It
is true that occasionally a soldier was attacked, but the number of these
was insignificant, and the character of the sickness was mild.
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