What is Medical Services and Warfare?

Medical Services and Warfare presents digitised primary source material including military, scientific, professional and personal perspectives on medicine during conflicts across the globe from 1850-1949. Students and scholars can research medical developments including x-rays, plastic surgery and artificial limbs, with a focus on rehabilitation, nursing and the psychological toll of war. Highlights include the personal correspondence of Florence Nightingale and the scientific notebooks of Alexander Fleming (both now fully searchable thanks to innovative Handwritten Text Recognition technology), the diaries of VADs, hospital records, and literature from the Red Cross.

Enabling comparisons of medical advances across conflicts, the resource includes documents from the Crimean War, the Boer Wars, the American Civil War, the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War and inter- and post-war periods. Through analogous hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, users can chart the progress of scientific advances informed by the experience of war.

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