The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 398
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
difficulty encountered in supplying the distant western posts. Essential
medicines and equipment, necessarily shipped from the East, were under-
standably slow in arriving; and heavy losses from damage in transit were
commonplace occurrences.49
Because of its many shortcomings and disappointments, frontier service
was a frustrating and unrewarding experience for the army's doctors. But
they kept at their tasks and, all things considered, compiled a highly credit-
able record. Their medical reports for the Military Department of Texas
during the years between the war with Mexico and the Civil War reflect
their struggle against the incursion of disease and injury in the antebellum
Southwest. But these reports, it is important to note, should not be viewed
merely as a record of the devotion to duty and hard work of Texas's medi-
cal officers. In light of the paucity of trustworthy firsthand accounts and
reliable official statistics relating to the state's medical history, the statistics
compiled by army doctors provide an important window on the health of
early Texas, for, without doubt, the soldier and the settler, in close contact,
exposed to the same environmental conditions, and performing similar
tasks, shared comparable medical problems.
49Statistical Report, II, 351, 353; Bender, The March of Empire, I2o (quotation);
Barrett, "Transportation, Supplies, and Quarters for the West Texas Frontier Under
the Federal Military System," 92. There are frequent references to the absence or short-
age of antiscorbutics. See, for example, Statistical Report, II, 351, 360, 361; III, 186,
193; Crimmins (ed.), "Mansfield's Report," 138, 238, 364.398
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/452/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.