Along with battle wounds, soldiers endured a variety of environmental hazards, exposure to toxins, and, in particular, bad food. Practitioners of military medicine had to be ready for it all, and had to treat people in battlefield surroundings. McCallum (history, Texas Christian U.) notes that for almost the first five thousand years of military medical service very little changed, with the possible exception of the speed of amputations. However, in the last hundred years or so the military physician is often ahead at a research as well as a clinical level. Surgeons and physicians, it seems, were worth something to ancient Romans (they received Roman citizenship and all its benefits), between 80,000 and 400,000 civil war soldiers returned home as opium addicts, and Carrel, pioneer of vascular surgery, started as a soldier's doctor. McCallum provides period illustrations. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)