MEDICAL CARE IN FREE-BESEIGED MISSOLONGHI (1822-1826). JOHANN JACOB MEYER AND THE FIRST MILITARY HOSPITAL
Keywords:
History of medicine, 19th century, doctors, Greek War of Independence, Johann Jacob Meyer, MissolonghiAbstract
During the siege of Missolonghi by the Ottomans the conditions of hygiene living, clothing and feeding of the vast majority of enslaved Greeks could be assessed as deprived and miserable. The humid climate and geophysical environment favored the outbreak of epidemics that further darkened an already unfavorable situation of the fighters and their families. Necessarily, the priority was to meet the military and economic needs and secondarily tackling public health issues, health care and medicine - social welfare. The inadequate infrastructure of nursing care, the limited number of health personnel and serious shortages into pharmaceutical material revealed the resolution of those doctors who provided their services during the siege. Johann Jacob Meyer, a famous Swiss philhellene, a man known as the first journalist in Greece, along with his Greek wife, contributed to the founding and organization of the first military hospital and to the improvement of the general health care during the siege of Missolonghi (1822-1826).
