As the nature of warfare itself has changed over the centuries, the ability to deal with these technological advances has evolved at the same time. Weapons have arguably become more harmful and, as a result, casualties have increased and injuries have become more serious. Therefore, medicine had to adapt to changes in armaments to maintain a high population, otherwise wars would be lost and won more easily and the number of victims would be high. There are four wars in the time period considered that contributed to the advancement of medicine; The Crimean War; The American Civil War; The Second Boar War; and the First World War. Each will be investigated to determine how medicine may have changed the course of warfare and whether there is any correlation between the advancement of armaments and medicine. Firstly, the Crimean War (1853-1856) saw perhaps the greatest change in terms of nursing and the role of women. The extreme weather conditions in the winter of 1854 and 1855, in addition to the heavy losses suffered by the British, are perhaps the main reasons why medical innovations occurred. During the war, an estimated 19,584 officers and men died and another 2,873 were permanently incapacitated, of which only 3,754 died on the battlefield. The rest of the deaths occurred due to the inefficiency of the British medical department. Hygiene was the main issue as preventable diseases such as scurvy affected 85% of hospitalized victims. The first hospital occupied by the Florence Nightingale in Scutari had some of the worst mortality rates as most of the inmates were already dying from infected wounds, severe blood loss, exposure, or a combination of all three factors. However, this led Nightingale to look for improvements in the...... middle of paper ...... e101.com." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. Web. August 1, 2011. .Patterson, Gerard A. Debris of Battle: The Wounded at Gettysburg: Stackpole Books, 1997 Robinson, Bruce. "BBC - History - British History in Depth: From Fluke to Theory - Homepage .Sohn, Emily. “How the Civil War Changed Modern Medicine: Discovery News.” Discovery News: Earth, space, technology, animals, history, adventure, humans, cars April 8, 2011. Web August 1, 2011. “World War I.” Creating the modern world. 2011. .