Both wardmaster and sister should be accountable to the surgeon of the There is no part of the organization of an hospital which demands more attention than the cooking department, and the proper distribution of the food, and none which, in military hospitals, is, in general, more neglected. The truth of the maxim which says, " la prciim-iv condition de la c'est la satisfaction de 1'estomac," is beyond question. Those who remember the cooking for the sick which prevailed at Scutari before, and that introduced after the kitchen department underwent the u female revolution," will be able to appreciate the difference which attention to this point must make on the results of treatment. A morsel which disgusted the healthy could hardly have been relished by the invalid, and when one calls to recollection the " portions " which In the cleaning of the wards and attending to the sick, I found it a good plan, when organizing my division of the Smyrna hospital, to divide the beds into batches of sixteen, to each of which two male orderlies were attached.
Each of these men was made responsible for eight beds, with the floor and utensils included in the space occupied by that number of beds. One of these men was called the " diet orderly," as his duty included the bringing to the ward, and the distributing of the rations to the whole of the >ixtccn patients included in his division, and he also attended the sister when she distributed the wine and extras. The other man was the " medicine orderly," who had charge of the dressings, and went for and distributed the medicines ordered at the visit. I found eight beds as many as one man could properly arrange, and I confined the service of the two female nurses I had in my division to attendance on the severe cases, the preparation of suitable drinks, the administration of medicines and extras, and the changing of linen.
The duties of the sister I have sketched in the text. RT. It "Ut to tinsick in those days of cloud, he cannot wonder at the aw till mortality which reiiri. Men away with loathing from the coarse, halfu if consumed, was;>al>le ot' providing them with the nourishment they urgently required. It was in the management of iicli frequent occurrence in the East, win-re a linirerinir convalescence most liable to rel had succeeded to a wasting rlux or debilitating that the "extras" troin the 1 kitchen" came to tell in the treatment. Nourishment, properly and judi-ly administered, was the sole medication on which mid relv in such cases. It was often of itself cure, and it was in attending to this that the female nurses saved so many live-.
I shall not soon forget the change effected l.y the offices of the female my division at Smyrna, l.y the careful the diet alone. do not hesitate to say, that previously to their arrival had lost many patients. who>uu'h much remains to he said n this siiliject, my space forl>ids cnterinu r D it furl 1. of the sick and wounded connected with an army. i> aluays a matter of difficulty. not uneoiiiiiioiily the indirect source of increa.Hin.tr the mortality. I-'or the army of the East, the medical d.-partmeiit was most ample, lnit, unhappily, military " sagesse " OF THK WAR.
Hence, after the Alma, the medical staff had helplessly to deplore the fatal abandonment of the forty ambulance -mis ])rovided for the service. In consequence of this measure, strongly remonstrated against by the medical staff, the sick and wounded those suffering from cholera, or from broken bones and amputated limbs had to be earned some miles to the beach, under a scorching sun, either in blankets slung between two oars, or jolted over tracks deep with sand, in the most uncomfortable of all earthly conveyances, Turkish arabas. The poor fellows were then crowded into the hold of the transports, or laid in rows on the hard deck, with scarcely a single attendant to answer their piercing cries for water, or for a blanket to cover them.