Hurt and Sick

O'Brian's masterful series of 20 novels, set about the year 1800, features Jack Aubrey (of the Royal Navy) and Stephen Maturin MD FRS (also of the Navy, but only marginally so). All of the series's shoot-and-bang adventures and action feature Aubrey. But Maturin is by far the more complex, central, and important character - simultaneously a Paris-trained physician/surgeon, top-level secret agent for British Naval Intelligence, and world-class natural historian. Maturin provides the overall context for British Navy activities which Aubrey undertakes. Maturin is also the core observer of and commentator on the human condition, morality, history, social structures, political postures and events, historical context and future consequences of present actions --- in short, Maturin handles all the serious intellectual requirements and chores throughout the series. As ship's physician and surgeon aboard Jack's commands, Stephen maintains a steady medical practice, dealing with the wounds (accidental, intentional, military, civilian - plus the rare veterinarian adventure, and some obstetrics on occasion...) and rampant, pre-germ-theory illnessesof his floating world. The wounds are terrifying - lost limbs a commonplace, evisceration by flying chunks of wood routine - the illnesses are mysterious, deadly, incurable and utterly not understood, reaping perhaps ten times the death toll of actual combat. It is interesting to follow the good doctor's medical activities as he goes about the health-care business in his violence-laden universe, trying first to do no more harm, and second, to actually do something medically useful, despite the primitive state of 1800's medicine. HURT & SICK examines the doctor's doings on a chapter by chapter basis, through the entire series. Each medical event is identified, then briefly discussed. O'Brian is meticulous in his descriptions and in avoiding anachronisms - which puts the modern reader at a tremendous disadvantage... theory, practice and language of 1800's medicine are all utterly foreign to the modern student: therefore whenever explanations seem required, they are included in the note for that particular event. No attempt is made to give an overview (whatever that might mean) of medicine either in toto, or aboard His Majesty's warships. The treatment of each chapter of each book begins with a by-no-means-comprehensive precis of the chapter, followed immediately by the medical events, identified by page number. The chapter precises are, I find, needed 'refreshers' as to where one is in relationship to the overall series. In any case, it is both educational and entertaining to isolate Maturin's medical doings and examine them under a bit of a microscope. One does learn quite a bit when peering at the details.