A report on the sanitary condition of the Army : particularly during the late war with Russia / by a non-commissioner.

  • Non-Commissioner.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the sanitary condition of the Army : particularly during the late war with Russia / by a non-commissioner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    strength; and in the British 172 5 per cent. But in the former, the rate of mortality on these admissions (exclusive of killed in action and ‘^disparus”) was 15*5 percent.; and in the latter 11*2 per cent. These figures will warrant no conclusions unfavourable to the sanitary condition of our Hospitals ; and it only remains for us to inquire, how far our losses depended upon the severe type of disease. In the Medical and Statistical Eeturns of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, printed by order of the House of Commons (27th February 1857), it is stated (p. 47), that the patients admitted [at 'fherapia] during October, November, and December, were, with few exceptions, much broken down in health, from the long-continued use of salt meat rations, confinement on board ship, and exposure to privations, and hardships on shore; while among others who had been landed, scurvy and bowel com- plaints of various degrees of severity, were generally prevalent; so that, with scarcely a single exception, all the stumps and wounds were in a sloughing state when the patients were admitted.” ‘‘During November and December 1854, a large Tiumber of Marines from the battalion serving on the heights at Balaklava, were sent down in a very ex- hausted state, suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery, consumption, and frost-bite. A number of these men when admitted were mere skeletons, covered with bed sores, and far beyond the reach of human aid. The warmth of the hospital, and cordials, might revive them for a few hours ; but they soon fell back again into a state of collapse, from which they never rallied.” “Throughout January 1855 patients continued to be received in a very exhausted state, especially from the Marines serving on the heights. So utterly prostrated were these men when they arrived, that the wonder was, not that so many died, but that so many recovered. The Aveather throughout February was fine, though cold, consequently the number of