"flying ambulance", 1814; "flying hospital, 1712

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/14/2011 11:39 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Amazing.  I hadn't known there were ambulances in
>the 19th c., much less lawyers metaphorically
>chasing them.  On closer examination, I see that
>"ambulances" (< "hôpitals ambulants", 'walking
>hospitals') have been so-called in English for
>(slightly) over 200 years.  Somehow they managed
>without sirens and flashing lights back then.

First one walks, then one flies.  "*Flying*
ambulances", can be found (in English) from 1814 and 1815.

Memoirs of Military Surgery, and Campaigns of the
French Armies ... From the French of D. J.
Larrey, M.D. ... By Richard Willmott Hall,
M.D.  First American from the Second Paris
Edition.  Vol. I.  Baltimore: Published by Joseph
Cushing, 1814, esp.  pages xv, 28, 29, 78, 80.  On page 28 is:

My proposition was accepted, and I was authorized
to construct a carriage, which I called the
_flying-ambulance_. ... I shall give a
description of this _ambulance_ in my campaign in Italy, in the year 1797.

Pages 81-82 contain a description of the flying
ambulances (more than one kind).

A later edition (London: 1815) has in part 1,
page 230 "flying ambulance (ambulance volante)".

But "flying *hospitals*" came earlier than
"flying *ambulances*"!  1712.  Six and a half
years ago I came across "flying hospital" from
1777 (George Washington), and was thanked by
Jesse for antedating 1869.  But that was merely
an accidental discovery from paper.  Now, with electrons, one searches:

The Examiner,.Vol. II, No. 20, From Thursday
April 10, to Thursday April 17. 1712.  Page 1, col. 2.

All honest Men will Tremble and Commiserate ...
when you draw the melancholly moving Scene,
exposing Numbers of our Fellow-Subjects, maimed
and wounded ... their Cries and Groans reaching
up to Heaven, which was easier to be pierced than
the obdurate Heart of _Him_, who, without
Remorse, _Pocketed_ the whole Flying-Hospital
Money, allotted by our gracious Q-----n, to
relieve and preserve those miserable Brave
Wretches, who so gallantly ventured their Lives
in Defence of their Country's Interest.

Joel

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