Medical aspects of the Battle of Waterloo: the battle.

The Duke of Wellington's polyglot army assembled for the Waterloo campaign was hastily aggregated and the Army Medical Department was somewhat short of staff and not entirely of the calibre of the department serving latterly in the Peninsular campaigns. The casualty rates during the battles of this campaign were high and the regimental and hospital staff struggled with the large number of casualties. Lack of stretcher bearers and transport were significant problems, which were compounded by the high density of the casualties.

Beatty's box.

William Beatty, the surgeon aboard the who tended Nelson in his final moments, had an unusual set of surgical instruments, put together to his own specification

Admiral Lord Nelson's death: known and unknown--a historical review of the anatomy.

Study Design: Reviewing documents about Lord Admiral Nelson's wound inflicted at the Battle of Trafalgar and studying the collected data in connection with ballistics and human anatomy.

Objectives: Attempting to find out the actual cause of death of Lord Nelson as soon as 4 h postinjury by a musket ball.

Setting: United Kingdom.

The Myles Gibson military lecture: surgery in the Napoleonic Wars.

Throughout the twenty-two year period of the Napoleonic Wars, campaigns under extremes of climate cost the Allies much in terms of mortality and morbidity. Although Bonaparte brought about many sound political and national improvements, when France had been brought to its knees by the bloody Revolution, his ambitions became excessive and his military forays difficult to support. Following early successes in the field, he underestimated the determination, persistence and the ability of some opposing commanders.

One-year survey of carcinoma of the oesophagus and stomach in Wales.

Background: The aim of the study was to identify all patients who presented with oesophagogastric malignancy within a single National Health Service region (Wales) over 1 year, and to follow the cohort for 5 years. Management and outcome were analysed to identify current practice and draft guidelines for Wales.

Methods: Patients were identified from hospital records.

Patients' perception of surgical services in a district general hospital.

Background: In addition to studying the outcomes of surgery in terms of mortality and morbidity rates and performance, it is also important to consider how patients perceive the delivery of the service given to them.

Methods: A patient satisfaction survey was carried out by the Surgical Epidemiology and Audit Unit of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on patients undergoing surgical procedures by the Department of Surgery at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. No day cases were included in the study.