This source analysis covers Source Analysis Practice within War and Medicine for GCSE History. Revise War and Medicine in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 8 of 15 in this topic. Use this source analysis to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.

📜 Source Analysis Practice

"We have with us here in France a number of the new mobile X-ray units. I have seen their value beyond question — in one morning I watched a surgeon remove three pieces of shrapnel from a man's chest with a precision that would have been impossible without the image before him. The men's confidence in the equipment is remarkable; they submit to examination without fear because they know the surgeons will not cut blindly."

— British Army Medical Corps officer's field report, Western Front, 1917

Applying NOP Analysis:

Nature: A primary source — an official military medical field report, written as an eyewitness account of surgical practice.

Origin: A British Army Medical Corps officer, Western Front, 1917 — written during WW1 by someone directly involved in battlefield medicine.

Purpose: To inform medical and military command about the effectiveness of new equipment — likely intended to support continued funding and deployment of mobile X-ray units.

Grade 9 Model Paragraph:

This source is useful for an enquiry into wartime surgical development because it provides direct evidence of mobile X-ray units operating at the Western Front in 1917, demonstrating that Curie's "petites Curies" were genuinely changing surgical practice by enabling precision before incision. The officer's specific example — shrapnel removed with precision that "would have been impossible without the image" — shows the mechanism by which X-ray technology reduced blind probing and infection. However, the source is limited because its purpose was to justify continued funding, so it presents only successes, not failures or cases where X-ray equipment was unavailable. Additional knowledge — that approximately one million soldiers were X-rayed by 1918 — is needed to assess the true scale of impact.

Practice questions for War and Medicine

Why did Ambroise Paré begin experimenting with new wound treatments on the 16th-century battlefield?

A. He was ordered to stop using boiling oil by his commanding officer
B. He ran out of boiling oil and was forced to try an alternative dressing
C. He had read a Roman text recommending ligatures over cauterisation
D. He believed Galen's methods caused more deaths than the wounds themselves

1 markfoundation

What name was given to Marie Curie's mobile X-ray units used during the First World War?

A. Flying ambulances
B. Radium wagons
C. Petites Curies
D. Field radiograph stations

1 markfoundation

Source Analysis Practice