Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the regulations affecting the sanitary condition of the army, the organization of military hospitals, and the treatment of the sick and wounded ; with evidence and appendix. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary Condition of the Army.
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the regulations affecting the sanitary condition of the army, the organization of military hospitals, and the treatment of the sick and wounded ; with evidence and appendix. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
801/978 page 41
![these marquees you will have means of securing more comfort and coohiess to the sick than otlier temporary hospitals such as wooden houses would aiFord, and you can always, should a site prove objec- tionable, change your ground, a difficult matter when wooden houses are the means of accommodation resorted to. Now that the season is advanced, and that the sick may be brought to this country without risk of injury from its climate, I am trying to procure three large three-deckers to run from the Crimea to England, touching during their transit at Scutari, Malta, and Gibraltar, to deposit at one or other of these ports, men whose state might render the further prosecu- tion of their voyage unsafe. I have, &c. (Signed) A. Smith, Dr. Gumming, Director General. &c. &c. No. 135. //. Boberts, -Esq, to the Director General. War Department, Sir, 9th March 1855. I AM directed by Lord Panmure to acquaint you, in answer to your letter of the 7th instant, that every exertion has been and will continue to be made, for supplying the army in the Crimea with vegetables, both fresh and preserved. I have, &c. (Signed) H. Roberts. The Director General, &c. &c. No. 136. Dr. Smith to Colonel Mimdij. Army and Ordnance Medical Sir, Department, 10th March 1855. The facility which has existed, ever since the formation of the barrack hospital at Scutari, for in- tercourse between the sick therein and persons dwell- ing exterior to its walls, universally acknowledged to be most objectionable, the constant presence of strangers in the wards of a hospital where quietude ought to prevail, is most disadvantageous, and is neces- sarily productive of an amount of over excitement calculated, in certain cases, to convert a manageable disease into one of a different character. The Principal Medical Officer at the above station, in a letter Avhicli I have just received, animadverts strongly on these points, and is exceedingly anxious that means should be immediately adopted to put an end to the unchecked access to the hospital Avhich now obtains. Dr. Cumming cannot be more impressed M'ith the impropriety of such a state of things than I am, and I therefore earnestly beg to recommend that proper regulations may lie ado])ted, so that the gates of the barrack hosjjital be shut against indiscri- min,ate visitors, and the , practice^ now tolerated, of persons coming from the suburbs of Scutari, and entering the northern gate and making a thorougli- fare of the central area on their way to the landing place, ought to be at once put an end to. It is a custom, and a proper one, in all hospitals, that the relatives, the friends, and persons especially interested in the welfare of the sick, should have access to them ; and I therefore proposed that this indulgence should be afforded twice, or even three times a week, but that it should be restricted within certain hours, when the presence of strangers is not likely to operate detrimentally on the sick, or inter- fere with the necessary duties of the medical officers, nurses, and servants. The regulations under which the proposed admissions should be tolerated should, I think, be established by the local authorities on the spot, and they ought not to be such as would exclude any person having a fair claim to enter the building. The hours of visiting should be so regulated that the prolonged presence of strangers should be prevented as it must be remembered that the primary object of all hospital establishments is, the well-being and the restoration to health of their inmates ; and, though the excitement which the gratification of curiosity may afford to certain classes of visitors may not be injurious to them, it is well known that the sick man, with his weakened frame, and his nervous system, sensitive and excitable, ought to be carefully kept apart from influences which will bear unfavour- ably on his susceptible condition ; and as the ame- lioration of his state is our first object, hence the earnestness with which I seek to avert from him aught of a nature likely to interfere with his progress towards health. Another point is, that the ill-regulated resort of visitors to an hospital entails with it the certainty that articles of the kind most improper for the use of the sick are clandestinely introduced. I need not dwell on this ; the use of improper articles of food is cal- culated to vitiate everything that the highest medical skill might direct for the sick. At Scutari, such necessary and judicious measures and precautions have hitherto, I fear, been almost entirely disregarded, and I have no doubt but that much ill has followed the violation of rules admitted in every country to be directly beneficial to the sick. I have been told that the wards of the hospitals at Scutari present, at times, more the appearance of a fair than of apartments devoted to sick and wounded men, many of whom are drawing near the termination of their lives. It is far from my wish, in the above observations, to offer anything whicli would appear to indicate a wish on my part to debar the sick from perio lically enjoying the presence of their friends, their relatives, and even of persons who, actuiited by good and phi- lanthropic motives, desire to communicate with them ; but, as I have already sufficiently expressed in the foregoing, I am of oi)inion that the jiresence of even these unexceptionable visitors should only be per- mitted two or three times a week, and at hours when the Avorking of the hospital establishment would suffer no derangement from such cause, and for periods not so prolonged as to operate injuriously on the infirm health of the inmates of our hospitals. I have, &c. (Signed) A. Smith, Colonel Mundy, Director General. &c. 8cc. No. 137. Dr. Smith to Dr. Hall. Army and Ordnance Medical Sir, Department, 10th March 1855. Referring to paragraphs 15, 17, 19, and 27, of my letter of the 5th ultimo, relative to the sanitary condition of the troops under your medical charge, of tlu^ camps and hospitals, as also of the town of Balakhiva, I have the honour to acquaint you that I consider it prudent, incase of any unforeseen difficulty or tlelay occurring as to the procuring from the ports of the Black Sea quick lime and charcoal, to order to be immediately shipped for Balaklava eighty tons of peat charcoal and ten tons of chloride of lime. These articles coming in aid of local supplies, and of other deodorants and disinfectants which have from time to time been sent to Scutari, and which, as you are aware, are at your conniumd, will, I trust, when judiciously and extensively enqiloyed in and iq)on the places where the remains of the dead have been Iniried, as well as in the latrines, and the pits where offal and carcases of animals have been in- terred, obviate the evil cousecpiences to be appre- hended from the putrefaction of animal matter near the camps. While 1 have no doubt you have earnestly turned your attention to the matters so essential to the health of the troops, and have been recommending F](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365210_0801.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
