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.
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![the requisite precautious to be employed against the approach of warm weather, still, as I am much in want of exact information as to what has been done in regard thereto, I am most anxiously expecting from you the replies to the queries contained in the letter referred to. I have, &c., To Dr. Hall, (Signed) A. Smith, &c. &c. Director General. No. 138. Dr. Hall to Dr. Smith. Before Sebastopol, Sir, 12tlL March 1855. On my return from Balaklava this evening I found the period of departure of the mail had been changed from nine o'clock to-morrow morning to seven o'clock this evening, and all that Mr. Robb will be able to accomplish will be to get the weekly state completed, but I fear it will be out of his power to get the general weekly state ready to go by this opportunity. I aim happy, however, to be able to inform you that the improved state of health of the army continues, and although the difference between this and last week is not so great as was taken oft* from the morning states the other day, owing to allowance not having been made for states that had not arrived, still the decrease in the course of the week amounts to 406, with a prospect of the decrease continuing. This error I discovered and corrected in the weekly state that was transmitted to the Minister at War through Lord Raglan. I recommended that a Board of health, composed ol myself and the superintending officers of divisions, should assemble for the purpose of examining the hospitals, camps, and corps of the whole army, and making such suggestions as might appear to us to be necessary for the health and comfort of the men ; and we commenced our labours with the 3d Division on the 10th, which is one of the most sickly in tlie whole army, and certain regiments in tliis division are more unhealthy than others. It will be our en- deavour to trace out the cause of this, for amongst men living on the same circumscribed piece of ground, clothed and fed in the same manner, and subjected to the same duties and fatigues, it is curious that one corps should be more unhealthy than another, and where that does exist to any extent there must be some defect in either the matefiel of the regiment or the manner of managing it by those in command over it. Some commanding officers exert themselves more than others for their men, and when they do their efforts are generally crowned Avith the satisfactory result of the improved comfort and appearance of their men, and others again argue that it is the duty of government to bring everything to the soldier, and so perhaps it is, abstractedly speaking ; but where the public transport of the army is annihilated, this kind of passive resistance only adds to tlie misery of the men. The camps generally speaking arc much cleaner than they were, and as the Commander-in-Chief's attention has been specially drawn to the subject, this improved condition of things is likely to continue. Since the Guards went down to Balaklava, about a fortnight ago, they have imjjroved in health and appearance, and the Cavalry and Artillery continue to enjoy comparatively good health. Scurvy is disappearing fast, and the bowel com- plaints which present themselves are neither so numei'ous nor so intractable as they were. Our supplies of every kind are ample, and notwith- standing all that has been written about the French hospitals, truth compels me to say that our own regi- mental system far exceeds their field ambulance, and so they admit themselves, and so must every one who compares them now ; and from all I hear, with the exception of the University in Pera, I doubt the superiority of their general hospitals over ours ; but a system of detraction has been commenced against our establishments, and has been kept up by interested parties under the garb of philanthropy—some to regain lost moral reputation, and others to make their mission of im])ortance ; and they wish the world to believe that all the ameliorations in our institutions are entirely owing either to their own exertions or those of a few nurses, and I am sorry to say some of our own department have pandered to this, and have been rewarded for it. On the 9th instant I had the honour to enclose of issues of medical comforts from the purveyor's store at Balaklava, for the use of the sick, in refutation of the Scutari correspondent of the Times, and I now send you another for February, the month tlie reporter was in the Crimea, which ought to be sufficient, I should think, to convince the most incredulous that the sick of the British army have not been left to the eleemosynary contributions of the Time's Fund ; and mind you, these figures are taken from official data duly authenticated, and not from an ad libitum newspaper statement that may l)e true, but there is no means of proving it beyond mere assertion. I defy the Times' Commissioner to prove that he has issued all the things he says he has for the use of the sick. It is well for him to despise the system of vouchers, but what institutions could exist without them ? He himself may be as pure as the unsunned snoAv and as guileless as a child, but my ex- perience of the world teaches me that all men are not so. I have, &c. (Signed) J. Hall, Dr. A. Smitli, Inspector General of Hospitals. &c. &c. No. 139. Major General C. Yorke to tlie Director General. Horse Guards, SiK, 12th March, 1855. Referring to my letter of the 16th December last, I am now directed by the General Commanding in Chief to acquaint you that a communication has been received this day from the Admiralty to the effect that as a portion of the lemon juice which was obtained last year by the Admiral Superintendent at Malta, for the service of the navy, can now be spared in consequence of supplies having recently been con- tracted for in this country ; the before-mentioned officer has been accordingly directed to cause 5,000 gallons of that article to l)e forAvarded by the earliest opportunities, consigned for the service of the troops to the Commissary General in the Crimea, and to hire freight for the conveyance of the same. I have, &c. (Signed) C. Yorke. To the Director General, &c. &c. No. 140. Dr. Smith to the Under Secretary for War. Army and Ordnance Medical Sir, Dejjartment, 13th March 1855. As it is to be feared that on the setting in of warm weather, serious consequences to health may result in the absence of proper precautions both at Scutari, in the vicinity of the camps, and at Balaklava, from the decomposition of animal matter, offal, &c. ; and as I am doubtful in regar-d to local supplies of charcoal and lime being available in sufficient quantity and in due time, I have the honour to submit, for tlic consideration of the Secretary of State for War, that in addition to the considerable quantities of jieat, charcoal, and other deodorants which I have already caused to be forwarded to these stations in aid of local resources two hundred tons of peat cliarcoal should be immediately shijiped, 130 for use in the Crimea, and 70 for Scutari.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365210_0802.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
