Military Hygiene

MILITARY HYGIENE, a branch of hygiene that studies the influence of military labor and daily life on the human organism and seeks practical measures to prevent or reduce the harmful factors associated with military activity. Professor of the Military Medical Academy Dobroslavin (1885), author of the first original Russian manual on military hygiene, gives the following definition of this science: "By the name of military hygiene, we shall understand a more detailed analysis from a scientific point of view of all conditions for preserving the normal vital activity of a soldier at all his ranks of the hierarchical military ladder, in all special branches of arms, and in the most diverse situations in which representatives of this special profession have to be placed." According to Laveran, "hygiene is the science of preserving the soldier's health." All those factors that contributed to or delayed the development of scientific medicine in general and general hygiene in particular were also reflected in the development of military hygiene as an applied science. Based on the nature of the prevailing practical tasks that were set before military hygiene in the process of its development, three successive stages can be distinguished: a) prevention and control of infectious diseases, b) creation of favorable living conditions (nutrition, housing, etc.), and c) improvement of labor conditions. At the early stages of the development of military hygiene, the hygienic requirements imposed on troops were formulated either as religious requirements, or as foundations of civil welfare, or as indications of reason and medical observations. The military-hygienic prescriptions of the Jews (Books III and V of Moses) are in general accordance with the spirit of the religious Mosaic hygienic legislation, which bears the character of public medicine, and are almost devoid of indications of measures for personal protection. Special attention is paid to the hygiene of camps and nutrition. An indicator of pedantic exactingness can serve as at least such a prescription to every warrior: "Besides your weapon, you must have a shovel; and when you sit down outside the camp, dig with it (a pit) and cover your excrement again" (Deuteronomy, ch. XXIII). In order to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases by troops returning from campaigns with booty, it was required that "enemy gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and everything that passes through fire - pass through fire so that it may be purified; everything that does not pass through fire, pass through water; after the battle, wash clothes on the seventh day and after that enter the camp" ("Numbers"). Among the Spartans, "whose state was as if an open camp located among the defeated and enemies, and for whom everything was entirely directed toward defense or battle," hygienic prescriptions are also imbued with the spirit of public medicine, but are not based on religious principles, but have in mind purely practical state goals—the preservation and strengthening of the health of citizens and, in particular, warriors (laws of Lycurgus). Military-hygienic requirements among the Persians in the time of Cyrus and Xerxes, formulated and implemented, however, more mildly, proceed from such foundations. The influence of Hippocrates (5th century BC) and his school in the field of military hygiene, as in medicine in general, was manifested by the struggle against crude empiricism and false philosophical theories, and by the substantiation of scientific propositions and practical proposals through experiment and careful observation. The influence of the Hippocratic school spread beyond the borders of Greece and, in particular, had a strong effect on the development of military hygiene in the Roman troops. The sanitary-hygienic concepts of the Romans of the cultural period were already quite high. The nature of the hygienic requirements for a military camp can be judged by at least the following description by Vegetius (4th century AD): "Troops should not be crowded in large numbers and for a long time in the same area, because the air is spoiled by this and the most dangerous epidemic disease occurs. They should not stand on waterless, treeless hills and be located in summer without tents. They should not lack wood, fuel, or clothing. The use of bad water causes disease like poison. Daily exercises are more useful for health than doctors" (Fröhlich). The transition in the Roman Empire to a mercenary system of organizing armed forces entailed a decline in interest in military-hygienic problems. With the fall of ancient culture and "with the replacement of the pagan world by the Christian one, the miraculous penetrated into the field of scientific research and replaced the natural and the lawful. The general decline of empirical knowledge was especially sharply reflected in hygiene, since the very content of hygiene, as a science of preserving and developing physical health, did not agree with the medieval ascetic view of the body as a mortal shell unworthy of attention and care" (Khlopin). Throughout the Middle Ages, military hygiene made no achievements in either scientific or practical terms. Of the scientific works of this period, only "De mansionibus expeditionum vel eorum, qui sunt in castris" by the Arab Rhazes (10th century) and "De regimine castra sequentium" by the physician from Vilanova, Arnaldus (14th century), can be noted, which were devoted to the camp arrangement of troops and paid special attention to the care of water quality. Only from the 17th century does interest in military-hygienic problems revive somewhat. A certain tendency to counteract the development of diseases through hygienic measures is revealed. Jean de Billon (1613) recommends changing camp sites frequently in order to avoid infections and "bad air." Fabriz von Hilden (1615) insists on the destruction or disinfection with lime of the excrement of dysentery patients and warns against the contamination of common latrines with the feces and urine of such patients. Raymond Minderer HYGIENE

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(Raymund Minderer) provides (1620) a number of useful tips on water supply and, in particular, on the disinfection of water by boiling or with oil of vitriol. But along with this, the same Minderer recommends the following as a panacea for all diseases: "If you can do it and it will not be repugnant to you, then drink your own urine in the morning on an empty stomach, which eliminates the putrefaction occurring in the stomach." The most prominent military leaders began to pay attention to the hygienic conditions of the life of troops. To Turenne (17th century) belongs the phrase: "Mon bien le plus precieux c'est la sante du soldat" [My most precious asset is the health of the soldier], and to Frederick the Great: "It is not a matter of prescriptions alone, but of all the measures and orders made in the army for the prevention of diseases," and also: "if you wish to create an army, then start with the belly, because it serves as its foundation" (Frohlich). Maurice of Saxony (17th century) in his work "Einfallen uber die Kriegskunst" gives many sound hygienic tips concerning the recruitment, uniforms, and provisioning of troops: "They want," he says, "for the soldier to look good, but the fault lies in the fact that they do not think about preserving his health, and yet this is one of the most important things to which one should pay attention." Napoleon also found that "the god of battles always inclines to the side where the strongest soldiers are." To the English army physician Pringle (1742-48) belongs the establishment of the fact that the source of contagious diseases was sometimes the infirmaries themselves. The 18th century owes the improvement of the hygienic conditions of military medical institutions to the works of Pringle, Brocklesby, Colombier, and Baldinger. The Crimean campaign, with its enormous mortality from contagious diseases, contributed to the formation of the realization that "the treatment of individual persons is insufficient for the fight against epidemics, that it is necessary to study the conditions contributing to illness and mortality in the mass of the population, and to apply public measures for the fight against these diseases" (M. Kapustin). The successes of natural science and medicine (Jenner, Liebig, Virchow, Claude Bernard, Lavoisier, Meyer, and others), the works of Michel Levy and Pettenkofer contributed to the fact that empirically found principles were scientifically substantiated and deepened. It became possible to answer in a precise manner the numerous questions connected with the methods of physiological and pathological influence of the soil, climate, drinking water, food products, in a word, external living conditions on the health of people. At the same time, the development of technology and industry opened up the possibility of fulfilling the tasks set by hygiene. The successful development of military hygiene was also facilitated by medico-statistical studies begun at the turn of the 19th century, which facilitated the assessment of the successes of practical hygiene and influenced the direction of its development. The tendency observed from the second half of the 19th century in European armies to involve military-sanitary bodies in the resolution of normative questions of troop provisioning (see Military-Sanitary Affairs) served as a practical impulse for scientific research work in the field of military hygiene. This was also facilitated by the organization of special schools for the training of military physicians and the establishment in their curricula of the teaching of general and military hygiene, which created scientific bases for the elaboration of military-hygienic problems and contributed to the dissemination of hygienic knowledge among broad strata of medical workers. In Russia, at the Medico-Surgical Academy (see Medico-Surgical Academies), before the separation of hygiene into an independent department (March 30, 1865), some hygienic information was communicated "incidentally by representatives of disciplines close to it: physiology, general pathology, and, predominantly, forensic medicine" (Khlopin). The first professor of the department of hygiene in 1870 was I. M. Sorokin, who leaned more toward forensic medicine and toxicology. In fact, the first Russian military hygienist was a student of Pettenkofer, A. P. Dobroslavin, who occupied the department from 1871 to 1889 and wrote a course on military hygiene. After his death, the department was occupied by Shidlovsky and Levashov. The activity of privat-docent Rapchevsky and Smolensky is connected with this department. From 1917, the department was occupied by the Honored Scientist G. V. Khlopin, under whom it was renamed the department of general and military hygiene, with the separation of the latter into an independent course (Prof. N. A. Ivanov). A number of modern domestic military hygienists (Okunevsky, Lastochkin, Ivanov-Volzhinsky, and others) belong to the Khlopin school. In France, the first department of military hygiene was established at Val de Grace (founded in 1850); it was successively occupied by: Levy, Champouillon, Villemin, Vallin, Laveran, Richard (Michel Levy, Champouillon, Villemin, Vallin, Laveran, Richard), and others. Among other scientists who exerted great influence on the development of this science in France, one can point to: Dupuy, Morache, Douillot, Rouget, Colombier, Lemoine, Fartiere, Reboul, Froussaint (V. Dupuy, Morache, Douillot, Rouget, Colombier, Lemoine, Fartiere, Reboul, Froussaint). In England (at Netley) in 1860, the Army Medical School was founded. Among English hygienists, one should note Parkes, Hammond (E. H. Parkes, V. A. Hammond). In Germany, in 1895, the Friedrich-Wilhelms Akademie was established. Among German scientists, the development of military hygiene was especially facilitated by: Kirchner, W. Roth, Lex, Frohlich, Schumburg, Hoffmann, Niedner, Voit, Dums, Schwiening, Zuntz, Rubner, Bottcher, Bischoff, Schmidt, Hiller, Heckmann, Busch, Kutscher, Budde, Beythien (Kirchner, W. Roth, Lex, Frohlich, Schumburg, Hoffmann, Niedner, Voit, Dums, Schwiening, Zuntz, Rubner, Bottcher, Bischoff, Schmidt, Hiller, Heckmann, Busch, Kutscher, Budde, Beythien). In other states of Europe, from the second half of the 19th century, courses for military physicians on military hygiene were usually established. The growth of scientific achievements in the field of hygiene and the practical need for their dissemination among medical circles resulted in the development of periodical literature on military hygiene (usually in the same printed organ as other military-medical questions). Among the largest periodical organs, one can point to those in the Russian language: "Voenno-Meditsinsky Zhurnal" (1823-58), "Voenno-Sanitarnoe Delo" (1881-90), "Sanitarnoe Delo" (1881-1895), "Trudy Voenno-Sanitarnogo Obshchestva v SPB" (at the end of the 19th century), "Meditsinsky Sbornik Varshavskogo Uyazdovskogo Voennogo Gospitalya" (at the end of the 19th century), "Voenny Sbornik", "Voenno-Sanitarnye Sborniki VSU RKKA" from 1924, "Voenno-Sanitarnye Sborniki Ukr. Voen. Okruga" from 1924; in the German language: "Deutsche militararztliche Zeitschrift", "Preussische militararztliche Zeitung", "Militararzt", "Feldarzt"; in the French language: "Archives de medecine et de pharmacie militaires", "Comptes rendus sur le service de recrutement" (annual reports from 1816); in the English language: "Report on military hygiene and therapeutics" (America), "The military surgeon-annual report" (America), "Army medical department reports" (England), "Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps"; in the Italian language: "Giornale di medicina militare"; in Polish: "Lekarz Wojskowy". In 1911, at the International Exhibition in Dresden, military hygiene was for the first time widely presented as applied to the practice of large armies. From the end of the 19th century, the programs of military schools began to be supplemented with a course on military hygiene. At the present time, this is accepted in all armies, and in some, as, for example, in England, special schools of hygiene for combat personnel have been established in addition. In the teaching program of higher medical schools in a number of countries, including the USSR, a course on military hygiene has been introduced. The popularization of military-hygienic knowledge among broad troop masses is ensured by the establishment in the troops of sanitary-educational activity (see Military-Sanitary Affairs), which has developed especially widely in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. There are no museums dedicated exclusively to military hygiene in any army, but this field is well represented in military-sanitary museums, among which one can note: the Berlin one and the Military-Sanitary Museum at the Military-Medical Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Leningrad (the latter founded in 1925). At the Houses of the Red Army, military-sanitary cabinets have become widespread, which are in essence permanent exhibitions on military-sanitary affairs, including on questions of military hygiene. The largest cabinet is the one opened in 1928 at the Central House of the Red Army in Moscow. The war of 1914-18 exerted a particularly significant influence on the development of military hygiene, which, by virtue of the mass nature of armies and economic requirements, demanded a revision of the most important hygienic problems. It is characteristic that it was necessary for the development of individual hygienic questions to establish either special bodies or even to resort to organized collective scientific cooperation of several countries, which was embodied in the establishment of international scientific commissions. Thus, for example, in 1918-19, the Inter-Allied Scientific Food Commission operated, consisting of representatives of the U.S.A., England, France, and Belgium (see Nutrition).

In the U.S.A., a special food administration was established, and a Food and Nutrition Division was created under the chief of the sanitary section of the North American army; in England, the Royal Society's Food Committee was established. The hygiene of military quarters, to which a particularly valuable contribution was made by French researchers Lemoine and Simonin as early as 1906, made enormous advances during the years of the World War, especially regarding field quarters [temporary barracks (see), underground structures, gas shelters (see), etc.]. The energetics of military labor, the in-depth study of which was founded by Zuntz, Schumburg, and Jules Amar, became one of the most urgent problems of Military Hygiene during the World War and the subsequent period, along with other issues of the hygiene of military labor. Particularly significant attention is paid to these issues in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The broad and in-depth formulation of these problems required the involvement of physiologists with experimental research methods to develop them. The psychophysiological military laboratories that have emerged over the last decade are essentially hygienic laboratories for the study of military labor. They study the tools of production that participate in a given military-labor process, study the conditions in which these processes take place, break this process down into its constituent elements, establish requirements for the person carrying out these military-labor processes and for the tools of production, and establish the best conditions for the corresponding military-labor process from the point of view of its greatest productivity with the least possible expenditure of living energy. To resolve hygienic problems in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the methods of anthropology and anthropometry are also used. This relates to questions of the rationalization of military uniforms, footwear, gas masks, etc. Organizationally, this led to the establishment of special anthropometric departments at psychophysiological laboratories. The introduction of chemical weapons into the armaments of modern armies (see Combat Poisonous Substances) posed a number of new tasks for military hygiene (work in gas masks, the hygiene of protective premises, clothing, etc.). The necessity of combating mental and nervous diseases in the troops necessitated the development of psychohygiene. Modern Military Hygiene has significantly expanded the limits of its jurisdiction, multiplied its methods of scientific research by borrowing them from other biological and, in particular, medical sciences, and by virtue of its significant development, it is divided into a number of special fields, applicable to individual branches of the military (naval, aviation, etc.). For detailed information on individual issues of Military Hygiene, see the corresponding entries (Water Supply, Clothing, Nutrition, etc.).