Sir John Hall's rejoinder to Dr. Sutherland's Reply to his observations on the report of the Sanitary Commissioners, at the seat of war in the East, in 1855 and 1856.

  • Hall, John, Sir, 1795-1866.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sir John Hall's rejoinder to Dr. Sutherland's Reply to his observations on the report of the Sanitary Commissioners, at the seat of war in the East, in 1855 and 1856. 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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    wards, by order of the Commander-in-Chief. Balaklava had the defects of all Eastern villages ; and during the wet weather of the winter of 1854-5, the main street and quay, which were unpaved, became, from the constant traffic of men and animals, almost impassable. Dr. Sutherland says, a sanitory police should have been esta- blished for the health of the troops in occupation, immediately the town was taken possession of. Now, as there were no troops in occupation of the place in the first instance, beyond a few invalids encamped near the general hospital, and as not a single soldier could be spared fi-om his immediate and proper duty in front, and there were no civil inhabitants in the place, I should like to ask him how he w^ould have managed to carry the measure out had he been there ? I admit the advantage of a sanitary police in towns, but there was no means of carrying it into effect at Balaklava during the winter of 1854-5. It is true I might have made a written representation to the Commander-in- Chief, and put on record, as the term then was, my opinion on the subject; but knowing Lord Raglan's disposition to do all in his power for the good of the soldiers under his command, and knowing his inability to spare a single man at the time, I did not think it right to embarrass him by doing so. In November, the sick of the Turkish army took possession of a number of houses in the village, and an effort was made to obtain Turkish soldiers for the sanitary affairs of ^Balaklava, and some were granted in November by the Pasha in command of the nearest Turkish camp; but the men were disgusted with the employment, and the prejudices of their faith rendered it still more irksome to them under Christian command, so that little good was effected by the measure. Any one who has ever served with an allied army, where the supreme command is not vested in one person, will readily understand the difficulty that was experienced in dealing with that part of the village which was occupied by the Turks; but after the arrival of the 71st Regiment, in Dec. 1854, some progress was made in repairing the streets and quay, but it was slow work, as the men had neither hand-carts nor barrows, and they were compelled to carry the stones in their hands. Fortunately, the cold of winter prevented any injurious effects from the filthy state of Balaklava ; and when the Turkish sick were removed out of the place, immediate steps were taken to purify the houses they had occupied by lime-washing. About this time the railway navvies began to pull down houses to form the line of rail which ran through two-thirds of the village, and when the Sanitary Commissioners arrived at Balaklava at the end