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by Vincent J. Cirillo, 241 pp, with illus, $55, ISBN 0-8135-3339-2, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2004.

JAMA. 2004;292:506-507.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Vincent Cirillo has written a small book about a small war that had a big impact on military medicine. The seldom remembered Spanish-American War—it was the answer to the $32 000 question on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" last September—was America's first overseas effort at empire-building and the last conflict in which more soldiers died from diseases than from clashes with the enemy. For every soldier killed in combat, seven others died from typhoid, malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever. Most of them died without leaving their stateside encampments. The resulting public outcry became a political crisis for President McKinley and an army still mired in the practices and mindset of the Civil War.

The "splendid little war" was poorly planned. Two hundred thousand volunteers (including the Rough Riders) overwhelmed the 28 000 peacetime regulars who were charged with training, housing, and equipping them. The army was poorly led. Aging commanders last . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Edward McSweegan, PhD, Reviewer
Crofton, Md
emcsweegan@verizon.net

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