Dominique-Jean LarreyBorn 8 Jul 1766; died 25 Jul 1842 at age 76.(Baron) French military surgeon in the service of Napoleon. Larrey was the first to note the contagiousness of trachoma (1802) and published the first description of trench foot (1812). He introduced to the battlefield: field hospitals, ambulance service, first-aid practices and the triage system of treating patients. Larrey introduced properly sprung horse-drawn carts to evacuate casualties quickly into newly established mobile field hospitals. From that moment on, surgeons had a reasonable chance of operating on the worst wounds before it was too late. The success of Larrey's approach earned him the position as Chief Surgeon of the Guard in all Napoleon Bonaparte's major campaigns from 1805 onwards. |