Raising Boys for the Navy: Health, Welfare, and the British Sea Services, 1870-1905.

Efforts to improve the quality and quantity of seafarers in the Royal Navy and merchant service became a particular concern amidst the degeneration debates of late-Victorian Britain. Maritime reformers not only promoted fitness in adult sailors, but also particularly sought to improve health and physique of boy recruits in order to rear a new generation of healthy sailors. This article shows how both services experimented with tighter admission criteria and dietary and exercise reforms, and became early advocates of using metrical standards to exclude all but the fittest, healthiest boys from training opportunities. While the physical monitoring of boy recruits undoubtedly showed the value of early lifestyle interventions in fostering healthy development, the rising physical standards of British seafarers in this period was just as much the result of restrictive medical examinations as a commitment to welfare initiatives.

A historical review of the U.S. Navy's busiest recompression chamber in the Pacific theater with a current perspective on caring for civilian divers within its area of responsibility: short communication.

On the island Nation of Guam, the United States Department of Defense has stationed military personnel from every service branch. Guam is utilized as a strategic waypoint for the U.S. military in the Pacific theater. As the largest service branch in the region, the Navy has placed a few Diving Medical Officers in Guam to collectively manage and treat patients with recompression therapy. Guam is also a popular tourist destination, with multiple recreational diving companies certifying individuals who are looking to take advantage of the beautiful warm water and exotic marine life. Unfortunately, with an increase in training and certifying inexperienced divers, came an increase in the operational tempo of the U.S. Navy's recompression chamber on Guam. The recompression chamber on Naval Base Guam (NBG) has been treating patients since 1971. With the only multiplace chamber in the Mariana Islands, Diving Medical Officers, with the accompanying chamber staff, treat military personnel, active-duty sponsored patients and civilian patients. Treating civilian patients by military providers through military treatment facilities presents multiple issues that must be addressed in an effort to provide efficient quality medical care. This article reviews the records, documents, and activity of the NBG chamber over the last four decades. Through the obtained data the information provides projected financial reimbursement from civilian patients. The article also sheds light on areas of needed improvement with regard to data collection, third-party financial collection efforts and the necessity of an inclusive electronic health record (EHR) for military and civilian patients.

Historical state of knowledge of the health risks of asbestos posed to seamen on merchant ships.

We examined the development of knowledge concerning the risks posed by asbestos to seamen working aboard merchant ships at sea (i.e. commercial, rather than naval vessels). Seamen were potentially exposed to "in-place" asbestos on merchant ships by performing intermittent repair and maintenance tasks. We reviewed studies measuring airborne asbestos onboard merchant ships and health outcomes of merchant seamen, as well as studies, communications, and actions of U.S. organizations with roles in maritime health and safety. Up to the 1970s, most knowledge of the health risks of asbestos was derived from studies of workers in asbestos product manufacturing and asbestos mining and milling industries, and certain end-users of asbestos products (particularly insulators). We found that attention to the potential health risks of asbestos to merchant seamen began in the mid- to late 1970s and early 1980s. Findings of pleural abnormalities in U.S. seamen elicited some concern from governmental and industry/labor organizations, but airborne asbestos concentrations aboard merchant ships were found to be <1 f/cc for most short-term repair and maintenance tasks. Responses to this evolving information served to warn seamen and the merchant shipping industry and led to increased precautions regarding asbestos exposure. Starting in the 1990s, findings of modest increases in lung cancer and/or mesothelioma in some epidemiology studies of seamen led some authors to propose that a causal link between shipboard exposures and asbestos-related diseases existed. Limitations in these studies, however, together with mostly unremarkable measures of airborne asbestos on merchant ships, preclude definitive conclusions in this regard.

[Work of medical official and the Sisters of Charity during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-1855].

Work of medical officials and the Sisters of Charity during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. The article is devoted to work of the medical officials and the Sisters of Charity during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. At the present time on the territory of Sevastopol Naval Clinical Hospital accommodate a memorial complex dedicated to the memory of medical officials, worked in the besieged Sevastopol. Referring to the historical sources of the work of medical officials and the Sisters of Charity of Krestovozdvizheskaya community the authors emphasize the importance of and the need for the installation of the memorial complex.

[Navy medical academy (to the 75th anniversary of establishment)].

The article is devoted to the history of the creation in 1940 of the Naval Medical Academy on the basis of the 3rd Leningrad Medical Institute and the Institute for sanitary-chemical protection of the People's Commissariat of the USSR. The structure of this institution included, faculties management staff of the medical service, medical and sanitation, Higher Naval Medical School, the Marine Research Institute Medical, higher courses for officers of the medical service, clinical naval hospital. During the period of its activity (1940-1956), the staff of the Naval Medical Academy made a great contribution to the naval medicine and practical public health. The merit of the Academy is not only a beautifully staged academic, medical, research process, but also in the creation of the spirit of the high sea camaraderie, accomplishment and pride for the work which its graduates have dedicated their lives.

The Ship's Doctor in the Royal Navy--100 years of tradition and progress.

The changing role of the Senior Service over the past century through numerous militarily heterogeneous environments and operations has necessitated an evolution in the role of the deployed Medical Officer. However: versatility, specialist knowledge, caring for a wide and varied patient population of friendly and enemy forces, and the dual role of being an officer as well as a doctor, have remained consistent. Identifiable changes in military medical officer training, the shape of the Defence Medical Services, and modern advances in treatment and communication have evolved the Ship's Doctor role from the pre-Second World War setting of a contracted Naval Medical Service, through growth, to a shrinking cadre again in a return to the contingency operations of today. Still, the role today remains attractive to a subset of doctors looking for something more from their medical practice; as the nature of conflict changes, so too will the role of the Ship's Doctor. The ongoing requirement for flexibility and versatility will remain. Medical Officers will continue to meet the need to provide high quality care to their patients and, as has always been the case, will continue to be drawn to the Service's principal appeal of an exciting world-wide role with the potential for unique experiences.

Action Stations! 100 years of trauma care on maritime and amphibious operations in the Royal Navy.

Over the past century trauma care within the Royal Navy (RN) has evolved; wartime experiences and military medical research have combined to allow significant improvement in the care of casualties. This article describes the key maritime and amphibious operations that have seen the Royal Navy Medical Service (RNMS) deliver high levels of support to wherever the Naval Service has deployed in the last 100 years. Key advancements in which progress has led to improved outcomes for injured personnel are highlighted--the control and treatment of blood loss, wound care, and the prevention and management of organ failure with optimal resuscitation. Historians often point out how slowly military medicine progressed for the first few thousand years of its recorded history, and how quickly it has progressed in the last century. This reflective article will show how the RNMS has been an integral part of that story, and how the lessons learnt by our predecessors have shaped our modern day doctrine surrounding trauma care.

[About experience of medidine of the Navy during the Great Patriotic War].

The article is devoted activity of the Medical Service of the Navy during the Great Patriotic War. During the war the Navy has performed as an integral part of the Armed Forces, played a major role in the defensive and offensive operations. From the first days of the war medical service fleet faced extreme difficulties, to demand from the medical staff of hard work. During the war many problems of medical support for combat operations of the Navy were successfully solved. It was also important to solve complex problems in organizing and conducting medical evacuations via sea. A great attention during: the war was played to the search for optimal system medical evacuation support of naval forces.

[The historical experience of therapeutic service in the Army and Navy during the Great Patriotic War].

The author presents the experience of therapeutic services of the army and navy during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and its importance for the present. This experience became a-general methodological framework-for the development of principles for the organization of work of military physicians in a modern warfare and the application of new weapons. The history of development, aims and objectives of the new section of Military Medicine--the Military Field Therapy as a unified system of organization and delivery of health care to servicemen based on the principles of a unified military field medical doctrine. A problem of organization of new health facilities (hospitals, hospital databases), their acquisition of trained personnel, especially the structure of internal medicine in the war years, the treatment and the early rehabilitation of wounded and sick, between the military and civilian medical institutions-is highlighted. There is an information that 90.6%, or more than 6.5 million soldiers and officers who were treated in hospitals with various diseases, were returned to duty. The experience of the medical service in World War II and the actual demand and is now planning for a package of measures aimed at further improvement of the health status of military-personnel.

[Louis Vincelet, medical historian, chronicler of the work of de Maupassant, a Normand passionate about the sea and a dreamer of becoming a white clown]. / Louis Vincelet, historien de la médecine, chroniqueur à la façon de Maupassant, Normand passionné de mer, au réve cache de clown blanc.

Son, grandson, great grandson, grandnephew of a medical doctor on both sides, Louis Vincelet dreamt of becoming a white clown, and ultimately his medical uniform in the merchant navy was not so different, during his long career with the Transatlantic General Company up to the age of 55. The sea has been his great source of inspiration, even when he had settled in Paris, taking care of the "forts des halles" and of artists in the main Parisian circuses.

[Three centuries with the Fleet (to the 300th anniversary of the Saint-Petersburg naval hospital)].

The authors analysed the history of the Saint-Petersburg naval hospital, founded in October, 1715 by Peter the Great, defined its role in the key historical events during organisation of medical, aid delivery to wounded and patients, discussed current tasks, concerning development of hospital art when forming modern image of the navy of the Russian Federation.

[Marine, aviation and space physician, psychologist and physiologist (To the 90th anniversary of the birth of G. M. Zarakovskii)].

In the current paper authors discuss problems of marine and aerospace medicine and psychophysiology, which Georgii Zarakovskii (1925-2014), a prominent domestic experts in the field of military medicine, psychology and ergonomics, solved. Authors focused on methodological approaches and results of the study of psychophysiological characteristics and human capabilities took into account for design of tools and organization of flight crews, astronauts and military experts. Authors marked the contribution to the creation of a system integrating psychophysiological features and characteristics of the person neccessary for development, testing and maintenance of aerospace engineering and organization of its professional activities. The possibilities of using the methodology of psychophysiological activity analysis in order to improve the reliability of psychophysiological military specialists, are shown.

[From pirates to virus: the Oropesa's journey]. / De piratas a virus: La travesía del Oropesa.

In 1902, being Chile a country free of yellow fever, the British steamship Oropesa arrived from Rio de Janeiro with three passengers suffering this disease. Captain Hayes rejected the quarantine imposed by the local Junta of Sanity in Punta Arenas and also in Coronel, following his journey with the sick passengers to Valparaiso, port where he accepted a brief quarantine and medical services for the most compromised of the three patients, who unfortunately died. The knowledge about yellow fever and the applicable epidemiological measures in that time in Chile come to us through the sessions of the Superior Council of Public Hygiene. The threat that implicated the presence of the Oropesa in Chilean coasts is compared with the arrival of British pirates and corsairs in the colonial centuries, before the independence, announced with the alarm cry charque (for Sharp) is coming to Coquimbo!

[Disease control on the Russian fleet in XVIII century].

Disease control in domestic fleet in XVIII century was a part of government measures concerning protection of the territory of the Russian Empire from the penetration of dangerous infectious diseases. Understanding the role fleet could play in the spread of infection, the government sought to prevent its entry from the sea. Following this task, in the early 20-s of XVIII century on islands of the Gulf Seskar and Wolf organized sanitary quarantine stations where ships from unfavorable in relation to the epidemic areas stayed before they pester the Russian shore. Eventually when the Black Sea Fleet was created, similar items appeared in Ochakov, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Yalta and Kerch. In XVIII century health legislation was supplemented by a number of regulations relating to the activities of the fleet. In particular, during the reign of Peter I epidemic rules were composed, which, as it became known, lasted for about sixty years. In 1786, the band released a set of quarantine rules designed to streamline the work of sanitary and quarantine stations. Important for protection against the penetration of Russian borders infectious diseases had timely warning of epidemics broke out abroad. Cooperating with European countries in the prevention and control of communicable diseases, Russia has successfully developed methods antiepidemic protection.

[1st Naval Hospital during the Great Patriotic War].

In the article about The First Naval Hospital, that became famous during the Great Patriotic War, the authors present the facts of the heroic work of the hospital and its staff under the hardest conditions of the Siege of Leningrad, in an atmosphere of constant shelling, its productive clinical and scientfic work during the war years (1941-1945). As a material for the preparation of this article were used documents of the Military-Medical Museum, factual information about the history of the hospital published in various sources.

[The experience in organizing the medical support of allied convoys during the Great Patriotic War on the northern maritime theater].

The medical support of allied convoys during the Great Patriotic War had a number of features. The Intensity of power of the fighting, the meteorological conditions, the composition of convoy's forces, the kind of enemy's weapon - had a significant impact on the structure of losses in personnel. The main type of medical care on the ships of 2-3rd rank was predoctor care. On the large and small antisubmarine ships and torpedo boats - it was first aid. The factor which has been affecting the amount of assistance - was a one-time inflow of a significant number of victims. Medical-evacuation provision of the convoys was carried out by the ships medical service without the use of amplification and sanitary ships. The most part of the wounded were taken to the coastal fleet hospitals later than 12 hours after the wound. The war experience has shown that in the distant convoys qualified surgical assistance may be provided in case of organizing it in this convoy and in case of using high-speed vehicles.

[The head of the medical service must be the person...(To the 70th anniversary of N.G. Ryzhman)].

The article is devoted to contribution of major general (rear Admiral. - navy) of medical service Nikolay Grigoryevich Ryzhman (1944-2005), the chief of the medical service of the Northern fleet (1991-1999), to development of naval medicine, who would have turn 70 years this September. The constant analysis, and experience generalization of the medical services of the fleet connections and associations and aspiration to provide fighting capacity for the fleet crew - were a keynote of Ryzhman's activity concerned development and deployment of the new forms and methods of medical support and searching of ways to increase crew efficiency. The implemented methods and forms of organization of the medical support and scientific development of the medical support are used even now in the practical activities of the medical service of the Northern fleet.

[Shestov V I--the founder of the Department of Organisation and tactics of the naval medical services].

Vasilii Ivanovich Shestov during the Great Patriotic War performed various tasks concerning the organization of medical support in the Leningrad naval base, consulted on an issue of production and use of hospital and medical transport ships, worked on the organization of medical support in Schliessburg and etc. Shestov performed a considerable amount of research and methodological works concerning the establishment of the discipline "Organisation of naval medical support". He is considered as one of the founders of the theory of naval medical evacuation support.

[Delivery of surgical care on naval ships: formation, development, and current stage].

Acute surgical diseases were and remain one of the most important problems of the organization of medical care and treatment of patients in the conditions of long distant sea voyage, when there is no possibility for medical evacuation. We analyzed the positive experience of surgical care in the sea, gained by Soviet and then and by Russian Navy physicians. As we haven't registered significant changes in morbidity of Navy crewmembers, we think that studying and creative application of this experience will have the positive effect.