Marking Time 339tors often concentrated on superficial aspects, for instance whether the
statutory number of officers were on duty in the orderly room.^94 Nevertheless
statistical controls were considerably improved and by 1851 the number of
military hospitals had almost doubled, from 95 to 189.^95 The Medical-Surgical
Academy, the chief institution in the field, turned out about 50 well-qualified
doctors a year in the first decade of the reign, and 60 to 70 at its end.^96 One of
its finest teachers was the celebrated surgeon (and later pedagogue) N. I.
Pirogov (1810-81), first holder of the chair of hospital surgery; in 1846 he
founded an anatomical institute which he also directed. Pirogov combined
theory with practice in exemplary fashion. In 1848 he went to the Caucasian
front to improve medical services in the field and spent nine months there, en-
during the harshest conditions. During the six-week siege of the village of Salta
he performed no less than 800 operations. It was at this time that he pioneered
the use of ether as an anaesthetic.^97 His achievements were much appreciated
by the men, once they had overcome their initial misgivings. Pirogov had to
fight a harder battle against prejudice in the military establishment.
During the war with the Turks of 1828-9 the Russian army's medical ser-
vices were overwhelmed by an epidemic of plague (chuma). One doctor later·
recalled seeing 500 carts laden with supplies held up for a week at a quarantine
station because the drivers could not afford to bribe the official in charge to let
them through. One field hospital, although well equipped materially, had only
one doctor for 400 patients, largely because the medical personnel themselves
had been stricken by the disease.^98 Another memorialist blamed 'the exclusive
use of biscuit and salt meat' for the spread of scurvy, and noted that the doctor
in his unit, who for some reason lacked the regulation surgical equipment, had
to extract bullets with his pocket-knife.^99 Dysentery and typhus took a heavy
toll in the army. 'An invisible enemy, more redoubtable than the Turks, reduced
it to a shadow', wrote a contemporary French observer.^100 In 1829 almost
three-quarters of the Russian troops were afflicted by disease, and nearly half
of the force died-an astonishingly high proportion; total casualties have been
put at over 118,()()(). IDI Shortly afterwards another 93,000 men died during the
eight-month Polish campaign.
Even in routine peacetime conditions losses among the troops were very
heavy. In the 1840s^102 37 .4 men died out of every thousand taken to hospital.
94 Sokolovsky, 'Russkaya gvardiya', pp. 55-6.
9S Chernyshev, '1st. obozreniye', p. 361; Yezer~ky (SVM iii(ii)) p. 34 n.
96 Beskrovnyy, Potentsia/, p. 138.
97 N. I. Pirogov, OtchetoputeshestviipoKavkazu ... , Moscow, 1952, pp. I0, 16-27; VE xiii
( 1915), 433. On Pirogov's influence see Frieden, Russian Physicians, pp. 5-11.
98 Zeydlits, 'Vosp. o turetskom pokhode', pp. 423, 427.
99 Von Hansen, Zwei Kriegsjahre, pp. 78, 93, 138.
lllO AMG F. Gl45. 'Situation presentant l'cffectif ... de l'armee russe' (unnumbered, un-
datedk
101 Curtiss, Russian Army, pp. 248-9; cf. Urlanis, 'l.yudskiye poleri', p. 165 (125,000); cf.
Chernyshev, '1st. obozreniye', p. 371; Yezersky (SVM iii(ii)) p. 37.
I02 More precisely 1841-52, excluding the so-called 'war years' 1848-9.