Notes on matters affecting the health, efficiency, and hospital administration of the British Army : founded chiefly on the experience of the late war / by Florence Nightingale ; presented by request to the Secretary of State for War.

  • Florence Nightingale
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on matters affecting the health, efficiency, and hospital administration of the British Army : founded chiefly on the experience of the late war / by Florence Nightingale ; presented by request to the Secretary of State for War. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VIIr DR. HALL ON THE WANT OF VEGETABLT:S August 18. Winter Clothing. September IL Potatoes. October 27. Vegetables. October 28. Milk and Cocoa. November 16. Preserved Potatoes. November 2. Vegetables and Scurvy. August 18 ~ Dr. Smitli sends to the Duke of Newcastle the following requirements for the Army in Winter Quarters :— G0,000 Blankets, 40,000 Eugs, 40,000 Palliasses, 40,000 Bolsters. September 11—In reply to a question from the Military Secretary, about sending out a ship-load of potatoes, Dr. Smith recommends that persons conversant with such s]ii])ments should be consulted before it is done. October 27—Dr. Hall writes to Dr. Smith that the want of vegetables is being felt in the Camp before Sevastopol—that he has represented the want of Potatoes and Onions—that it will be quite impossible for the Army to keep the Field, or to exist under canvass during winter. October 28—Dr. Smith writes to Dr. Hall to know tlie efficacy and utility of Moore's Concentrated Milk and Cocoa. November 16—Dr. Smith replies to Dr. Hall's letter of October 27,—informs him that Preserved Potatoes are in the Commissariat Stores, Turkey. November 2—Dr Hall intimates to Dr. Smith the appearance of Scurvy—the arrival of vegetables two days ago—the efforts made to have them regularly supplied. This, and the letter of the 27th October, are the only letters of Dr. Hall to Dr. Smith, in which any mention of vegetables appears. The great calamity is now drawing to its height. It is time to make a few observations. It does appear that the Director General and the Principal Medical Officer considered themselves responsible for such matters, partly Dietetic, partly Medical, partly belonging to personal hygiene, as blankets, vegetables, lime-juice, &c. It does not appear how far they were considered responsible for advising upon matters purely Dietetic, such as Rations, or how far these were left to hap-hazard. Had half the ingenuity, exercised in sending out Lime Juice, as will prese-jtly be seen, been expended in making that article unnecessary, the Army might have returned to the shores of England alive and well.