In this podcast, Michael Crumplin explores the development of military surgery during the Napoleonic Wars. He provides a brief context of the evolution of surgery and outlines the changes in training, surgical knowledge, militarisation, apparatus and patient experience. 

Specification overlap:

• Edexcel ‘The British Experience of Warfare’
• OCR ‘The Changing Nature of Warfare’ 

Michael is a retired general surgeon, a curator and archivist at the Royal College of Surgeons and an authority on battlefield surgery during the Peninsular and Napoleonic Wars.

1. Introduction and lead-up to the Napoleonic Wars
2. Changes during the French Wars
3. The evolution of surgical techniques
4. Changes in surgical equipment
5. Patients' experience
6. Changes after the Napoleonic Wars
7. Surgical developments after 1850