under the protection of a corps, enjoying the benefit of its mess in the best society, and being now necessarily well qualified men, are in general respectable and respected. The General Medical Staff ought to be even more so. But is this the case? On first joining an army, they may be said to have no head quarters, nor indeed position of any kind. From there being no ambulance with the British army at which the young medical officer might find a home, nor hospital corps to furnish him with means of conveyance and service, he often wanders about, acknowledged by none, because not wanted by any, until the time of actual service arrives, and then he is in requisition far beyond what either his own exertions can supply, or the constitution of the medical staff can afford. In the first position he is voted a supernumerary, encroaching upon the accommodation of the army. In the latter, he has a load of pressing duty thrown upon him, which it is not possible he can perform satisfactorily. His duties, moreover, are either ill defined or absurdly regulated.

he may

Taking the medical staff of regiments, where all act as army physicians, prescribing for diseases whether medical or surgical, and performing operations as the first circle of duties, it might be supposed that all would continue to walk in the same line through the different grades of military service. But no. Promote the operator amongst the regimental surgeons to the rank of physician, and the knife is forthwith taken out of his hands; he is never to touch it again. Make him a staff-surgeon, with superior rank, but the same pay, indeed preserve the amputation-knife, but he is deprived of his home with the regiment, the accommodations of his mess and his servant, and made to shift for himself as he best can. Still more,-promote him to the highest ranks of Deputy-Inspector, or Inspector-General of Hospitals, and he ceases to be a medical man altogether, whether physician or surgeon. He is from henceforth to be a man of office entirely, an officer of administration alone: the book of physic, including surgery, is shut in his face, never to be opened unless by the less experienced juniors. Many, it must be owned, have continued to read and to inquire, but they have done so not in accordance with, but in defiance of, their prescribed duties.

F

Now, is there not much absurdity in this? For surely the army physician, whether of surgery or medicine, should continue to be so as long as he remains in the service. Who so fit to regulate the practice of its hospitals as he whose life has been spent in conducting it ?—and to pronounce him unfit for the very reasons that should have made him the fittest, is to throw away the best instruments that could have been employed. The first anomaly is an offshoot of that University or College pride, which goes to declare the physician degraded by the practice of surgery. In civil life, where the division of labour furnishes operatives for every branch, it may be tolerated, but in an army, where there should be no idlers, and all be made to work at the labour of the day, the distinction must ever prove equally absurd and mischievous.

The situation of the lower ranks of the medical staff, generally young men from the schools, thrown into a strange army, where they have neither place, nor home, nor experience, nor knowledge how to guide themselves, without even being allowed a servant that could speak their language, as in the Peninsula, but left at the mercy of any native camp-follower-the veriest rips in existencee-was as pitiable as can well be conceived. I have seen them robbed and stripped to the skin by such depredators, without knowing a word of the language to help themselves, or having a resource of any kind to apply to; while, if they dared to retaliate in self-defence, martial law was ever ready to crush the victim it had failed to protect. This was not kind; it was not just; for allegiance and protection should ever be made to go hand in hand. The supplying every officer of the civil departments with a soldier

* I saw a young Scotch hospital mate placed in this predicament on his arrival at Lisbon, during the Peninsular war. Having no assistance or resource, he hired the first Lisbonian that offered himself for a servant. The weather was hot, and either for the sake of coolness, or in accordance with the proverbial economy of his country, he went to bed without a shirt, leaving it with the rest of his clothes and baggage at the bedside of his billet. In the morning, servant, shirt, baggage, all were gone, and he was left without a rag in the world. His loud vociferations at length brought some of his companions about him, who found him naked as the statue of Memnon, bawling for revenge, and intent upon pursuing the fugitive robber into the streets of Lisbon.

This has hitherto been When I held the office of

servant, or tentman, would no doubt have withdrawn a hundred or more men from the ranks, but they need not, and they would not, have been the best musketeers. The regiments would never have consented to part with such; and to refuse them a tentman of any kind, was to pass upon them something like a sentence of excommunication. It never was done towards them in any army before that I know of, and it is to be hoped never will be done again. But the position of the superior medical staff has seldom been what it ought to be. It is not pretended that they should be consulted on the military operations of the field, for the fate of a campaign must ever outweigh the present health of the troops: nevertheless, their opinion ought to be heard in all matters of encampment, quarters, and subsistence. little the case in the British army. Inspector-General of the Portuguese auxiliary force on the Peninsula, the conscription of 1810-11 was literally destroyed, from being crammed into the fortress of Peniche, one of the unhealthiest quarters that could by any chance have been selected. When pestilence had more than half done its work, I was consulted for the first time, and sent to succour, if succour could then be of any avail to men so situated. In the following year I learned, still without being consulted, that St. Ubes, a situation fully as unhealthy as Peniche in the autumnal season, had been chosen for the next conscription; and I have reason to believe, that by voluntarily protesting against it, I averted a similar catastrophe, and caused the conscription to be moved to Mafra, one of the healthiest quarters of Portugal.

In the West Indies I found medical opinion equally at discount. The convenience of the Engineer, the whim of the Quarter-master General, or General commanding, and the profit of the contractor, seemed alone ever to be consulted. There was not a station in the command where the health of the troops seemed ever to have been thought of, or a health opinion called for. It might be given, but it was always treated as an unauthorised assumption. Thus, on making my inspection of the island of Trinidad, I found that the station of St. James's, at the foot of Fort George hill, had been fixed upon for building the principal barracks of the

colony. I considered it my duty to point out its insalubrity, and to give my reasons why it never could be made healthy, but must always prove the grave of white troops. One would have supposed from the event, that instead of protesting against, I had actually recommended it, for the building of the barracks was commenced forthwith, at an enormous expense, and to the certain destruction of all white troops that have ever been made to inhabit it. Hitherto this has been the case every where. Let us hope, henceforward, that in peace at least no station will ever be chosen for barracks, upon which the health authorities have not previously been fully and duly consulted. It is their duty and their place to give opinion upon it. If incompetent, let them be superseded by abler men, but let it never be said hereafter, that Great Britain has persisted in sacrificing her best defenders in compliment to contractors, and engineers, and builders, without reference to the qualified health authorities, that could have taught them better.

69

OF DIET AND RATIONS.

THE British soldier is unquestionably the best fed of all the European nations; his ration is the most expensive and abundant, and it is served with greater punctuality and regular observance than any other army exhibits. It ought to be a ration of great enjoyment and abundance; but still we appear to have less for the cost than could be believed, and the soldier seems scarcely to value it as he ought. This arises from its being too good and too regular, without labour or choice on his own part. Were he allowed to cater for his own mess (always, however, under due superintendence), there can be little doubt of his better relishing his meal, besides learning that most useful of all lessons, the art of subsisting himself. A great physiological principle seems always to have been overlooked, and that is, the natural appetite for change and variety. It is ever the same, and no man, even if he will, can be satisfied with this. His stomach and digestive organs will be heard in their own cause; and if they be not attended to, their owner will fly to alcohol in solace of the disappointment. There is a mistake here; for if we wish to wean the soldier from drunkenness, we should be careful to place within his reach more wholesome indulgences, of which, a diet suited to his taste (and it cannot be so suited without variety), must ever be the first. Man is a cooking animal; but we are bad cooks principally through the want of opportunity and practice to become better. In the case of the soldier, to cook is to live; for if he cannot prepare his food, he will be poorly fed, even with flocks and herds at his command. We need not fear the Sybaritehe does not frequent the bivouac; and all the luxuries that the pay of the common soldier can provide will never enervate him. Better, then, by far, that he should worship the belly, than worship the wine-press or the rum cask. Teach him to cultivate