David McLean, Surgeons of the Fleet The Royal Navy and its Medics from Trafalgar to Jutland, I.B. Taurus, London, 2010. Pp. xiv + 296. pound27.50. ISBN 978 1 84885 284 6.

摘要

Since the 1960s there has been a prominent trend in maritime and naval history away from the narrow studies of tactics, weaponry and admirals, to a much broader, contextualised understanding of navies as fighting forces. As result, studies of manning, dockyards, victualling, ordnance, and the transport service have abounded. Few studies of naval administration have received the same attention as medicine and health. The three volumes of C. Lloyd and J. Coulter's Medicine and the Navy, published between 1957 and 1963, remain vital works in the lexicon of both medical and maritime history. Although the conclusions have been refined and oft revised since then, as Surgeons of the Fleet happily notes, they have stood the test of time. It is hard to say, therefore, (and nor does the author try) that naval surgeons are understudied.