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    March 31,1855] THE LEADED 293

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    THE SEBASTOPOL COMMITTEE. The Hon. and R...

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    Imperial Barltament. The Treat* With Sar...

    Mr . Spoonjsb , also spoke against the motion , which ¦ was supported by Mr . B . Philuwobe , Lord Stanley , Mr . Edwabd Ball , and Mr . Mttntz . —XiOrd Pax . merstok adverted to the difficulties , which beset the question ; but , conceiving that some alteration of the law should take place , even for the sake of the Church itself , and thinking that the proposed measure merited consideration , he would not oppose the motion , which was accordingly carried by 155 to 76 . education ; Mr . Mir-NER Gibson obtained leave to bring in a bill for the establishment of free schools in England on the secular plan ; and Sir George Grey stated that it was not intended to proceed with Lord John Russell ' s bill on the 16 th of April , but that it would be proceeded with after the return of Ids lordship from Vienna . —Mr . Gibson ' s bill was subsequently introduced , and read a first time .

    March 31,1855] The Leaded 293

    March 31 , 1855 ] THE LEADED 293

    The Sebastopol Committee. The Hon. And R...

    THE SEBASTOPOL COMMITTEE . The Hon . and Rev . Sidney Godolphin Osborne was examined on Friday week , and stated that he went out to Scutari on his own account , and acted as assistantchaplain . Nothing could be worse than the state of the general hospital at Scutari . There was no system , and there was a lack of the commonest necessaries . As an instance of this , he mentioned that one of the chaplains having been seized with cholera , it was found impossible to administer to him an ordinary draught for want of the proper- drugs . A Russian prisoner had a shattered leg , and required the stimulus of spirits ; but none was to be had . Miss Nightingale often complained to witness of wanting necessary articles . From the absence of

    operating tables in the hospital , he and the surgeon had to hold the patients ^ in their arms during operations , which were always performed in the ward ; but at length two crazy tables , which shook very much , were used for the purpose . He thought a larger staff and an efficient responsible head were needed , and that , under the circumstances , no one individual could be blamed . Dr . Menzies had said nothing was wanted , but the fact was , everything was wanted . There was no responsible head to the hospitals , for Dr . Menzies , though nominal head , did not seem to be virtually so . With regard to the allegation of raw meat , the witness asserted that he had

    irequently seen it served out to the men . He had also seen men , who were not fit to walk , ten yards , obliged to walk the whole distance from " the transport ships to the hospital . In his opinion , Dr . Hall should have made provision foF the- accommodation of the sick and wounded : he believed stores could have been , got from Lord Redcliffe if the purveyor had applied . Dr . Menzies , in answer to repeated inquiries from Lady Redcliffe , had said nothing was wanted , but at length he admitted that some bedsteads were required , and that that was alL The force of public opinion had certainly led to improvements in the hospitals , but the witness doubted whether even now all the stores had been sent

    out from England . The mystery , however , would not be cleared up until the matter was put in the hands of very different inquirers—namely , those of . the police . ( Laughter . " ) , s mondayT Dr . Andrew Smith was again examined ; but his evidence was for the most part only an amplification of what lias been already given . He stated that in November and December last there was a liberal supply of medical comforts at Scutaii . There was plenty of linen

    for all the purposes of the hospital . If the soldiers had no gheets , it was the fault of the purveyor : large quantities of sheets had been sent out . It is the duty of the purveyor , according to the regulations , to look to the entire economy of the cleanliness of the hospital . He had power under the reglations to enter into contracts for all the washing , and the hiring of persons to wash and to keep the hospital duly cleaned ; and if this were not done , it would bo his fault . If the purveyor found the ordinary force for this insufficient , he could apply to the inspector-general and hire more .

    Mr . Layard . —I have received a letter from the Crimcn , dated the 1 st of January , from a general officer in charge of the First Division , stating that the regimental surgeons do nothing , that the men are without shelter , without medicine , without warm clothing , without moJical comforts , without the means of transporting men who are dying f rom dysentery from the wet ground on which they arc covered only by a wet blanket , and chained down , na it wore , by the sea , to be overwhelmed by tlio first advancing tide . —Is that , I > r . Smith , a correct or proper state of things ? Dr . Smith . —It docs not agree with the reports I have received .

    Dr . Menzies was called , and said ho waa deputy inspector-general of hospitals . Ho looked upon the burrock hospital at Sutari as a more muke-shift . The general hospital was superior , but still it was defective in many respects . He reported on the accommodation in the hospitals , in triplicate , to Major Sillory ( the commandant )^ Dr . Andrew Smith , and Dr . Hall . Ho reported that the two hospitals might bo able to accommodate two thousand patients . t Ho also reported that some of the rooms in the hospitals wore in a filthy state , and that he had applied in AuguBt or early in

    September to the commandant , before the arrival of the sick , to have them cleansed and whitewashed , which was done . He ( witness ) took the whole charge of the two hospitals from the 26 th of June until the 1 st of January of this year- He also stated in his report , that he had represented to the commandant that repairs and alterations were necessary in the drams and privies connected with the hospital , which alterations and repairs , to a certain extent , were made . When he returned to this country he was asked by Dr . Andrew Smith to make a statement of the difficulties he had experienced in the hospitals at Scutari , and he did so . He had previously stated those difficulties in the weekly reports he sent home to Dr . Smith . The report

    which he made to Dr . Smith was dated the 14 th February last , and he complained in it of the occasional want of medical assistance in the hospitals ; of the advanced age of the purveyor , Mr . Ward , and of the inexperience of the clerks in Mr . Ward ' s department ; the want of bedding for the sick and -wounded in the barrack hospital , which he attributed to the . purveyor ; the delay in the return to Scutari of the bedding and other stores which had been taken to Varna , when the armies removed there , from deficiencies in the transport service ; the bad conduct of certain corporals who acted as ward masters ; and the want of orderlies . He often called the attention of the purveyor to the necessity of keeping the hospitals clean : he ( witness ) , at least , made every effort to keep

    them clean , but he was never satisfied with the condition in which they were . Mr . Wreford arrived at Scutari on the 16 th of September , and became purveyor from that time ; but witness could not say the hospitals were in a much cleaner state after that . " The barrack hospital was filthy no doubt , but its state had been much overdrawn . He must say he never saw the floors covered over with faeces of the patients . He could not help observing the filthy state of the men as he went round the wards , and he told the purveyor to supply everything that was necessary . He believed there were several occasions when the purveyor could not , even with money in his pocket , obtain in Constantinople what was wanted in the hospitals . It was possible for a man to have died

    in the hospital from the want of the common necessaries of life without his ( witness ' s ) knowledge ; but he had never heard of it . He admitted having made a report to Lord Stratford that nothing was wanted in the hospitals . That report" would rmost likely be sent t & England to Dr . Smith ; and it was probable that upon that report Dr . Smith grounded the opinion which he expressed to the Times commissioner , when that gentleman visited Scutari , that there was then nothing wanted in the hospitals ; but he ( witness ) never wrote home to Dr . Smith directly to that effect . He was informed that the washing in the hospital was performed by c 5 ntract . No official complaint was made to him that washing was wanted , though he had noticed that the clothes of the sick and wounded were filtly .

    TUESDAY . Mr . William Henry Flower , assistant surgeon to the 63 rd Regiment , stated that on the regiment landing at Varna , a small bell-tent was furnished for the sick ; but the rest of the regiment was about six weeks without tents . The dew was very heavy , and the men suffered inThealth from exposure . The bedding was not brought out till ten weeks after they landed . There were no means provided for the transport of the sick . The first day they got a waggon to carry them . They left a great many men to die on the road , having no ambulance waggons . Some were on the beach , but they were shipped again . If they had had litters or mules , they could have brought these sick men on . The witness then

    repeated and confirmed the evidence of previous witnesses as to the insufficiency of ambulances , the defective nature of the arabas , the want of knapsacks , which were left behind , the inconvenience of the pocks which the men had to carry , and other arrangements . Speaking of the hospitals , he said : The English had no operative table , and all the French operations were finished the day after the battle , and the sick removed . The sick of the English were about three weeks without tents or marquees . The tents used for the sick at . first did well , but after rain became wretched . They were not waterproof , and were lhado worse from the ground being covered with mud . The men were wot through nearly always , and there were no means of drying their mudcovered garments . The smell was very offensive . There

    was no boarding to be had , but merely the bare ground for the sick . The men lay in their clothes , which dried on them . He . attributed much of the mortality that took place to the hospitals being in that state . They had very few orderlies who knew their entries . Some of the best died on their way from England . There was a deficiency chiefly of opium , one of the most important medical agents , aa the men were Buffering chiefly from cholera and diarrhoea , in which canes it was a most useful drug . The knapsacks were landed two months after the men landed ; they wore brought up and piled in tho middle of the camp , and wore not issued to the men until a few days before he left . Ho heard that this was in consequence of an order from tho colonel of the regiment . .

    Mr . Layard . —Then , even although tho men wcro perishing for want of clothing , their knapsacks wcro not given to them ?

    Witness . —No . Mr . Layard . —What were the men doing ? Witness . —Digging some large holes or pits fourteen feet in diameter , for placing the tents in to prevent them being blown away ; but the tents were not placed in them , because the holes became filled with water . ( This shocking statement was very strangely received with laughter . ) Witness attributed much of the illness of the men to the want -of clothing . ' Up to tlie time he ' came away , some of the men had not changed their clothes at all for nearly three months , but lay in them day and night . The covering of the men in the trenches was

    only that of their usual clothes , with the blanket , for twenty-four hours together , exposed to all weather . He heard the men say they had generally been two nights out of three at work in the trenches . They had tea twice a week . The coffee was always green , and had to be broken up by cannon-balls , or pounded with a stone , and roasted or charred on the tops of the camp kettles . It tasted very much like charcoal and water . ( Laughter . ) The witness also referred to the occasional stoppage of rations , and to the want of all provision for the sick on board the invalid ships , where they lay on the bare deck , and where the only " conveniences" they had were large tubs , emptied during the day .

    Dr . Menzies was re-examined , and said he had a direct charge over the general hospitals , but not over the barrack hospitals . He entered into a variety of professional details , and in the course of these admitted that at Scutari great delay occurred in the patients getting their meals , and that the sick suffered very much in consequence ; but he was not aware that they ever went the greater part of the day without food . He had complained to the purveyor ; but that officer did not always conform to his orders . The purveyor seemed to think he was only responsible to the Secretary-at-War , and disputed the point with witness . He ( witness ) really did not know what his duties were : and many others were

    in the same predicament . He did not know whether he went round the wards of the hospital or not ; but he was quite satisfied that none of the wounded on whom operations had been performed died from the bad sanitary state o the hospital . In June , and again in the latter end of October , he applied to the purveyor and apothecary . of the hospital at Varna to have the medical stores which had been left there when the army moved on to the Crimea sent to Scutari , but they did not arrive at Scutari until the latter end of November . The delay was owing to the want of transports . Several other points were touched upon by Dr . Menzies , the general tendency of whose evidence was to throw the blame on the purveyors .

    Wednesday . Dr . Menzie ' s examination was resumed ; but his testimony merely enlarged upon the general details which we have already given . Dr . David Dumbreck , Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals , was next examined , and testified to the filthy state o the hospital at Varna , and to the want of proper arrangements . He stated , however , that there was no lack of surgical appliances in the Crimea ; and he thought Dr . Menzies was a fitting man for his post . He said

    they had great difficulties to meet . They had no purveyors' department , no hospital corps , no nurses , no trained " orderlies . Dr . Menzies was-completely overworked . He was put in a position which no one man could have coped with , Witness had made a report containing certain suggestions ; but he did not know that they had been attended to . The hospitals at Balaklava were not properly organised ; but he had never seen them in anything like the state described by Mr . Stafford . The hospital tents were in a filthy state .

    Do you think there is a fear of incurring responsibility on tho part of the medical men in our general hospitals?—Decidedly ; they are liable to be referred to and questioned if they have ordered anything for a patient that appears extravagant . Do you think having to keep so many accounts , and fill up so many forms , interferes -with the medical duties of the surgeons?—Most distinctly ; that is decidedly the evil of our whole medical system ; we have fur too much writing to do . In answer to questions from Lord Seymour , witness stated that ho had been in the medical service of the army since 1825 . He thought the ordinary duties of regimental hospitals in time of pence had not created an experience that fitted tho medical officers at once to perform all the service of a general hospital . THUIIS 1 > AY .

    Dr . Forrest , who went out to tho East originally as a BtafT-surgcon to thu Third Division , but who was subsequently appointed , V ro ten ., deputy-inspector of the hospital at Scutari , was the first witness examined on Thursday . His evidence was to tho effect that the condition of tho hospital was not so bad as has been rcpre-Hentcd by other witness ; but ho admitted that tho dead houso at Scutari wa « i » a room an tho corridor immediately under one of the wards of the hospital It wns very oflensive , ho added , and prejudicial to tho health of tho patients ; and lie ( subsequently caused it to bo moved to a little distance . There was a want of medicines aftcrJNovoinber in tho Thud Division ; and tho tents for tho sick and wounded being overcrowded , the smell woe very offensive .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1855, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31031855/page/5/