This two-volume work is the first published comprehensive history of military medicine in the Western world. The first volume deals with the period beginning with Sumer (4000 B.C.) and concludes with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The second volume begins with the Renaissance, the occasion of the Western rebirth of the empirical habit of inquiry that made possible the eventual development of scientific medicine, and ends with the Vietnam War. Within each volume, the analysis is organized chronologically.



Since the transfer of information or practices relevant to military medicine were rare, prior to the Renaissance the first volume examines the various civilizations as individual detailed case studies. Subsequent numerous instances of cross-national transfer of information and practices are reflected in the organization of the second volume, which still does not lose sight of the fact that, until very modern times the various national efforts at providing military medical care remained sufficiently unique. Each volume ends with a bibliography and a general subject index. These volumes will be of considerable use to students and scholars alike in the disciplines of world history, military studies, and medical history. It is hoped that the Gabriel-Metz undertaking will stimulate an intensive re-examination of the course of military medical history.