194 The Imperial Century, 1725-1825surgeons.^115 Vyazemsky complained that regimental field hospitals were
allocated a mere 104 roubles (per annum?), even though a unit might have as
many as 500 men on its sick list; the 12 carts provided to transport casualties
each had space for four rm:u, which meant that any wc:.:nded who ~ou!d w;:i.!lc
had to do so; they contracted minor ailments which then turned into incurable
diseases.^116 According to one foreign observer the soldiers 'feared the hospital
like the tomb'^117 -as well they might, given the cramped unhygienic conditions
and the low professional standards of some of their personnel. At Nikolayev in
1789 'there was no one to look after [invalid recruits] but barbers, many of
whom got rich from the sick while others took money from the dead'. This was
reported by an officer who took their plight to heart. He moved them to a field
hospital where, however, 'I lost over 60 men ... from dysentery and fever, for
the air in Kherson was heavy all the time.'^118 Medical knowledge in this era was
still at a level where, as one historian puts it, 'it was beyond the power of any
individual to stay the appalling mortality'.^119
Not unreasonably, perhaps, Suvorov disapproved of military hospitals on
principle. Assuming command in the southern Ukraine in 1792, he took
drastic administrative action to reduce the number of patients, discharging
some and moving others to rural areas. His sensible remedies were accom-
panied by quixotic and arbitrary measures, for the great commander fancied
himself as an expert on herbal medicine' and liked to prescribe his favourite
concoctions. In his view 'drink, food and air' were the three keys to good
health; he might have added a fourth, physical intimidation, for he went on:
'whoever neglects his health, [apply] the stick to his superior'.^120 The last
remark was made in Russian-occupied Finland, where his troops labouring on
a canal construction project in peacetime conditions were dying at a rate of 2.4
per cent per annum.12^1 It is unfortunately not yet possible to compare this
figure with those for units stationed elsewhere.
At the turn of the century the empire had nine general military hospitals
with 5,700 beds, to which may be added the regimental /azarety, each of which
was supposed to have 45 to 60 beds.^122 In 1802 the army had 422 doctors (over
one quarter of all those in the country)-precious few for a force nominally
400,000 strong.^123 During Alexander l's reign there was a considerable expan-
sion: by 1825 there were 95 base hospitals with 29,000 beds and 1,213 doctors
115 PSZ xx. 14839 ( 19 Feb. 1779). Kruchek-Golubov and Kul"bin (SVM viii. xlviii) and Muller-
Dieu (Militiirar<t. p. 59), citing this source, both omit the 120 battalion /ekari-presumably with
good reason.
116 Vyazemsky, 'Zapiska', p. 7.
111 Warnery, Remarques, p. 130.
111 [Mosolov) 'Zapiski', p. 136; cf. Vorontsov, 'Zapiska', p. 489: 'l'affreuse mortalite ... fait
fremir la nature.'
119 Duffy, Russia's Military Way, p. 172.
120 Mcshcheryakov, Suvorov, iii. 74, 126, 223.
121 Ibid., p. 137.
122 Kruchek-Golubov and Kul"bin, in SVM viii. lxxvii, lxxxix.
12J Ibid., p. 75.