Lot 4480

Description

Germany Esmarch battlefield bandage, WWI, triangular shaped cloth (approx 50 inches at base and 35 inches at sides) lithographed with six images demonstrating thirty two different tourniquets, splints, slings and bandages, for battlefield first aid using this handy bandage. A few small holes and some rust spots but overall very fine and scarce.

Professor Johannes August Friedrich von Esmarch first served in 1848 as a junior surgeon in the war against Denmark. In the 1864 war in Schleswig-Holstein he organised field hospitals at Flensburg, Sundewitt and Kiel. He was appointed Surgeon-General to the Army when the Franco-Prussian War broke out working in Kiel and Hamburg organising voluntary aid and later was based in Berlin as Consultant Surgeon at the barrack's hospital at Temphelhofer Feld. At the time he was undoubtedly the pre-eminent authority on hospital management and military surgery. He introduced first aid training for both military and civilian personnel and this bandage/sling, based on his techniques, could be applied in thirty-two different ways (all illustrated on the bandage).