|
 It
is difficult to believe an ambulance speeding to a hospital today is
connected to walking. The Latin word ambulo means “I walk”.
In the
nineteenth century in the midst of battle, the wounded
soldiers, who could not walk, were often treated where
they lay until the fighting had finished at the end of the
day. The French army began to use a wheeled cart on the
battlefield referred to as a “hospital ambulant”, a
walking hospital. At first it was used to take medical
supplies to the wounded soldiers, but as time progressed
it was used also for carrying wounded soldiers off the
battlefield.
Thus the
ambulance of today derives its meaning from a walking hospital. |
