TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS OF THE AND OF THE LOYAL VOLUNTEER CORPS, & OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. GENTLEMEN, THE peculiar exigency of the present times, and the unaccustomed hardships to which many thousands of my loyal countrymen may soon be exposed, must give weight and importance to the subject on which I have presumed to address you. The following pages contain not only the result of my own observation, and that of several experienced friends. whom I have consulted; but likewise the substance of what has been written by the best authors, on the means of preserving the health of military men. How much it is in your power, GENTLEMEN, to preserve the health of the British soldiers, and at how comparatively small an expense this may be done, will scarcely be credited by those who have not maturely considered the subject. I need not inform you (since it is a fact universally acknowledged) that, as the success of every public exertion depends much on the unity and strength of a nation, so does the well-being of a military body depend chiefly on the united efforts of intelligent officers, in promoting its health and integrity. "The preservation of health," says an army physician," obviously and principally depends upon military discipline and economical arrangement: in this medical men rarely have a voice." Therefore, a knowledge of the causes of disease, is of primary importance to military commanders. "A hundred thousand men," says another physician," are confided in a state of full health, to the care of one General, who becomes the sole arbiter of their life and death. Often, for want of knowledge, he neglects the Robert Jackson. † Dr. Le Cointe. most important principles on which his glory hinges, the preservation and health of the troops; without which he can attempt no thing, and succeed in nothing. From the moment a soldier becomes sick, the physician should employ all the means in his power to restore him; but so long as he remains well, the General is his protector, his preserver, and his father-to foresee all the causes which may possibly injure his health to adopt all the measures which may fortify his constitution, increase his vigour, and animate that intrepid and masculine courage, which is only to be found in a person who enjoys the most perfect salubrity. A thousand volumes have been printed, to teach the art of destroying mankind; some few, also, on the means of combatting those diseases which consume our armies; but we have none to prevent so many cruel disorders, and to preserve the health of our troops, by repelling or correcting all the sources of contamination. The art of preserving the health of soldiers is not a proble matical system; it is a science easy and sure, of which the invariable principles afford us the most certain and acknowledged results." That sickness is not the necessary conse→ quence of a military life, may be learnt by adverting to accounts remaining of the campaigns of the ancients. Among the circumstantial details of the operations of JULIUS CESAR's well-disciplined army, in a variety of climate and situations, no mention is made by that commander of any enterprise having been defeated by the sickness of his troops nor does he notice any other sources of disease, than those which were the inevitable result of the casualties of war. Hence may be deduced the possibility of preserving the health of armies; which, as we are informed by XENOPHON'S Institutions of CYRUS, used to constitute a part of the regular education of every man intended to command. A long sea voyage was formerly considered as one of the most unhealthy situations to which a man could be exposed: but, within these few years Captain Cook, and others, have demonstrated, that by the institution and✩ steady enforcement of proper prophylactic regulations, a ship's company may be conducted round the world, exposed to every vicissitude of climate, and all the hardships and dangers of the sea, with a smaller proportional loss of men than would have happened in any other given situation. By the introduction of similar plans, the mortality which has prevailed in the navy of late years, is certainly much diminished: but, regulations equally efficacious have not yet been universally adopted in the British army. There is little room to doubt, however, that the power afforded by military discipline of enforcing regularity among the men, makes it possible to render the life of a soldier even more healthy than that of the lower classes in general, who aré left to the freedom of their own will. The greater part of the following pages, it is hoped, will prove useful not only to the military Commander, and to the Officers of |