Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/703

Rh A M B A M B 665 AMBROSIUS, AUBELIANTJS, a leader of the Britons during the 5th century. He is said, on somewhat doubt ful authority, to have been a son of Constantino, who was elected emperor by the Roman army in Britain in 407. The usually received account of his life, based chiefly upon the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, contains much that is evidently fabulous. It seems probable that he was educated at the court of Aldroen, king of Armorica, who sent him over with a strong force to assist his countrymen against the Saxons, whom Vortlgern had invited to Britain. There is also little doubt that, having defeated Vortigern, he was chosen to succeed him as king of Britain. Geoffrey also states that he built Stonehenge (see STONEHENGE), that he defeated Hengist, and that he compelled the Saxons to surrender at York; but these stories are inhe rently improbable. The circumstances of his death are in volved in equal obscurity. According to Geoffrey s account, lie died of poison at Winchester; but others state that he was killed in a battle with Cerdic the Saxon in 508. AMBULANCE, the French ambulance, hopital ambulant, derived from the Latin ambulare, to move from place to place. Ambulances, in military phraseology, are hospital esta blishments moving with armies in the field, and organised for providing early surgical assistance to the wounded after battles. They are only prepared for affording help of a more or less temporary kind, and they are thus distinguished from the stationary or fixed hospitals, in which sick and wounded soldiers receive care and treat ment of a permanent character. The term is not un- frequently misapplied in common speech in England to the ambulance waggons, or other conveyances by which the wounded are carried from the field to the ambulances and fixed hospitals. Such vehicles form part of the ambulance equipment, and will be noticed presently. The constitution of an ambulance includes (1) a certain staff of officers and subordinates, and (2) a certain equip ment. The equipment naturally divides itself into (a) the medical and surgical equipment, and (&) the equipment forming the means of transport for the wounded. But the constitution would hardly be understood without a general comprehension of the system on which the functions of ambulances are discharged, or, in other words, the plan of administering surgical assistance in the field to the wounded of armies. Ambulance administration will therefore be first noticed, keeping in view the circumstances of armies operating in Europe, and the ambulance staff and equipment subsequently. AMBULANCE ADMINISTRATION. The origin of the ambu lance system which now prevails in all civilised armies, though variously modified among them in particular details, only dates from the last decade of the last century. Be fore that time no ambulance establishments had been organised for effecting the removal of the wounded, or for giving the requisite surgical attention to them, while battles were in progress. Soldiers wounded in the ranks were either carried to the rear by comrades, or were left to lie exposed to all risks, and unheeded, until after the fighting had ceased. The means of surgical assist ance did not reach the battle-field till the day after the engagement, or often later, and to a large proportion of the wounded it was then of no avail. In 1792 Larrey introduced his system of ambulances volantes, or flying field hospitals, establishments capable of moving from place to place with speed, like the flying artillery of the time. They were adapted both for giving the necessary primary surgical help, and also for removing the wounded quickly out of the sphere of fighting. The first Napoleon warmly supported Larrey in hi? endeavours to introduce and perfect the new system of surgical aid to the wounded in battle ; and, being received with much favour by the troops, the plan obtained a firm footing, and was subse quently brought to a high state of perfection. About the same time another distinguished surgeon of high position in the French army, Baron Percy, introduced and developed a corps of brancardiers, or stretcher-bearers. These con sisted of soldiers trained and regularly equipped for the duty of collecting the wounded while a battle was in pro gress, and carrying them on stretchers to places where means of surgical aid were provided. From the period when these improvements were intro duced most civilised armies have had ambulance establish ments formed for giving surgical help near to the com batants. It is only, however, during the last twenty years that ambulances have acquired the completeness of organisa tion which they have now attained in some armies, espe cially in those of Germany. In the armies of the United States of America, during the late great civil war, the ambulance system attained a very complete organisation, particularly from March 1864, when an Act was passed by Congress, entitled &quot; An Act to establish a uniform system of Ambulances in the United States.&quot; This law fixed a definite and single system of ambulance arrangements for all the armies of the United States at that time in the field. The ambulance arrangements of the British army have never reached the degree of completeness which they have reached in Continental armies. During the Peninsular war the want of a trained ambulance corps, and of properly- constructed sick-transport carriages, formed a theme of constant complaint. For the former, soldiers from the ranks were substituted a double evil, as they were un- suited for the work, while their employment lessened the fighting strength; for the latter, commissariat waggons, or the agricultural carts of the country in which the troops were operating. It was not from want of attention being called to the subject, as the writings of Sir J. M Grigor, Hennen, Millingen, and other Peninsular surgeons suf ficiently testify. The last-named military surgeon published a very complete scheme of an ambulance establishment shortly after the war was concluded, approaching closely in its principles to those put into practice of late years in the armies of Germany. There is reason for believing that had the operations of the British troops on the Continent not been discontinued, some plan of the kind would have been introduced. As it was, subsequently to 1815, so far as army hospitals were concerned, administrative atten tion was chiefly given to improving those for the accom modation of the sick in peace time. The wars that British troops were engaged in in India, China, the south of Africa, and elsewhere, did not lead to improvements like those which have been made in Continental armies; for either the habits of the natives of the respective countries, or the nature of the climate, or the state of the country, necessitated special arrangements for the care of the sick and wounded unsuited for meeting the circumstances of European warfare. Thus, when the Crimean war broke out the English army was still without an ambulance corps, or an ambulance establishment of materiel. An ambulance corps of military pensioners was hastily raised, but failed from the habits and enfeebled constitutions of the men. They were succeeded by a corps formed of civilians, unused to the discipline and habits of military life, which likewise failed. Several forms of sick-transport vehicles were tried, but only indifferently answered their intended purposes. Fortunately, as the troops were for the most part stationary during the war, the want of thoroughly organised ambulances was not felt to the same extent as it would have been had the operations been extended far into the interior of the country. The ex perience of the Crimean war led to efforts to repair the I - 84