This illustration is actually one of the very first about emergency medicine and is thus extremely rare. Medieval combat was typically one-on-one and close up, so the loser of the fight was not often left wounded but given a killing blow. Having a physicians for soldiers in an army was regarded as a waste of manpower. It wasn’t until the American Civil War that ambulances even existed. Obviously, medicine was primitive in the Dark Ages, so in fact battle wounds were probably one of the best understood illnesses in that their cause was apparent. It was understood in an indirect way that contamination of a wound by outside materials was bad. Greek sparing was done partially naked for this reason, as weapons/armor were considered more sanitary than cloth in wounds, noted to cause fever and infection. Common treatment of battle wounds, few though the living patients were in the time this was made, were preferably cauterized or treated with a salve/detergent and dressed. Maybe some bloodletting thrown in for good measure. Trepanning was also available. There were no verification for who counted as a physicians, however, and no way to gaurentee a person claiming to be such wouldn’t make things worse. So given that someone would sustain nonfatal battle wounds, wouldn’t be left to die, brought back to someone who sorta knew what they were doing, went on to illustrate such cases, and that illustration make it to today like so is really rather remarkable.
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This illustration is actually one of the very first about emergency medicine and is thus extremely rare. Medieval combat was typically one-on-one and close up, so the loser of the fight was not often left wounded but given a killing blow. Having a physicians for soldiers in an army was regarded as a waste of manpower. It wasn’t until the American Civil War that ambulances even existed.

Obviously, medicine was primitive in the Dark Ages, so in fact battle wounds were probably one of the best understood illnesses in that their cause was apparent. It was understood in an indirect way that contamination of a wound by outside materials was bad. Greek sparing was done partially naked for this reason, as weapons/armor were considered more sanitary than cloth in wounds, noted to cause fever and infection.

Common treatment of battle wounds, few though the living patients were in the time this was made, were preferably cauterized or treated with a salve/detergent and dressed. Maybe some bloodletting thrown in for good measure. Trepanning was also available. There were no verification for who counted as a physicians, however, and no way to gaurentee a person claiming to be such wouldn’t make things worse.

So given that someone would sustain nonfatal battle wounds, wouldn’t be left to die, brought back to someone who sorta knew what they were doing, went on to illustrate such cases, and that illustration make it to today like so is really rather remarkable.

(via biomedicalephemera)

Source: 2headedsnake

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