uld get no House for a regimental
Hospital in Villages, they ordered these Tents to be pitched,
and had the Ground within well covered with Straw and
Blankets, and then put the Sick into them, and there took
Care of them till they found an Opportunity of sending them
to the Flying Hospital.

There is no Part of the Service that requires more to be regarded than
the Choice of proper Places for Hospitals, and the right Management
of them, on which the Health and Strength of an Army often depends;
for in wet unwholesome Seasons, if infectious Disorders get into the
Hospitals, which possibly might have been prevented by proper Care,
they often weaken an Army in a very short Time far more than the Sword
of the Enemy.

We have no Account of the particular Manner in which the Antients took
Care of their Sick and Wounded in Times of War; for although we read
in _Homer_[149] of Surgeons or Physicians attending the _Grecian_
Camp, and in _Xenophon_[150] of _Cyrus_'s having appointed Physicians
to his Army; and we learn from _Tacitus_[151] and _Livy_[152], that
the wounded _Romans_ were received into the Houses of the Nobility,
and had Physicians to attend them, and were furnished with
Fomentations and other proper Remedies; and from _Justin_[153], that
the _Lacedemonians_ followed the same Method: yet these Authors make
no Mention of the particular Oeconomy or Manner in which these
Hospitals were conducted.

[149] _Homer_ mentions _Podalirius_ and _Machaon_, sons of
_AEsculapius_, as two excellent Physicians or Surgeons in the
_Grecian_ Army. Vid. _Iliad_, lib. ii. Physic and Surgery
were antiently exercised by the same Persons.

[150] Vid. _Xenophon. de Institut. Cyri._ lib. i. et viii.

[151] _Tacitus_, after giving an Account of 50,000 People
being killed by the Fall of an Amphitheatre at _Fidena_,
during the Time of a Shew of Gladiators, has these Words:
"Ceterum post recentem cladem, patuere procerum domus,
fomenta & medici passim praebiti; suit urbs per illos dies,
quanquam maesta facie veterum institutis similis, qui magna
post praelia saucios largitione & cura sustentabant." _Vid.
lib._ iv. _Annal._ Sec. 63.

[152] In _Livy_ we find the following Passage: "Neque immemor
ejus quod initio consulatus imbiberat, conciliandi animos
plebis, saucios milites curandos dividit patribus. Fabiis
plurimi dati, nec alibi majore cura habiti.