The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-21 00:00:00

THE SCUTARI HOSPITAL.

" ONE of the Medical Staff" at Scutari, writing from
the hospital under date of March 22, requests us to
correct some misstatements which have appeared in
the columns of a contemporary relative to the state
of the hospital. It was alleged that " the stretchers,
which have as yet been the only resting-place of the
patients," have just given place "to an improved kind
of bedstead." Now these "stretchers," as they are
contemptuously called, are, according to our corre-
spondent, perfectly efficient bedsteads, answering every
purpose required, and have only been altered by
adding a shelf to the supporter at the upper end of
the bedstead. To the statement that "the sick who
have come down with dysentery and fever have almost
all died," a direct contradiction is given, the writer
stating that, from his own positive knowledge, a large
majority of the cases of diarrhoea, dysentery, and
fever that come down from the camp do not fermi
nate fatally, but recover entirely or partially.
On the medical treatment of the sick, which was
asserted to be most injudicious, to be of too stimu-
lating a kind, and wholly contrary to the practice of
experienced physicians in the East, our correspon-
dent states that many of the hospital surgeons had
had most extended experience of fever and dysentery
in India, that the treatment varied with the age, con-
dition, disorder, and circumstances of the patient in
each particular case, and that stimulants were dis-
countenanced in cases of fever and dysentery, unless
the patient's strength was so reduced as to render
them necessary. Many of the patients brought down
from the camp are so fearfully reduced, appearing as
if suffering from starvation, that stimulants afford
the only chance of restoring them; and that they are
in many cases unsuccessful must be attributed, not
to their improper administration, but to the hopeless
weakness of the patients.
To the assertion that the treatment pursued during
the illness of the seamen was totally wrong, and that
the lives of officers and men were sacrificed to the
incompetency of the doctors, " One of the Staff" re-
torts by quot►ng the previously-expressed sentiment
of the censor, that on " the medical question it would
be impossible for a layman to venture an opinion."
On the devotion of the medical officers to their
duties, on the present state of the hospitals, and on
the urgent necessity for strengthening the medical
staff, our correspondent may speak for himself :

Of fifteen medical officers attached to the hospitals at
Kullelt two or three days ago, ten were sick, one of whom
has since died. All these officers had caught their illness
in the discharge of their duty. The 95th Regiment has
lost three surgeons within the last twelve months, and
every medical officer of that regiment has been dangerously
ill. I know of instances where medical officers have risen
from a sick-bed, when so much enfeebled that they could
hardly stand, and have dragged themselves to the bedsides
of their patients, though themselves as ill as most of those
they attended. Soldiers have told me of a medical officer
dropping down exhausted in the hospital. A few days ago,
at Kulleli, in consequence of the great sickness among the
staff, one officer had for a short period to take charge of
four hundred patients ! What is the consequence ? The
mortality among the medical men is fearful ; and, of those
who recover, many go home with shattered health and en-
feebled constitutions. And it must be remembered that
those who die fall into the grave unnoticed said unknown ;
they die, not on the field of glory—their names are never
blazoned forth for the country to mourn and honour—their
memory lives only in the hearts of a few friends and com-
rades—their only epitaph is spoken by the soldiers whose
lives they have saved, perhaps at the cost of their own.
Surely it is a little harsh to attack men against whom no
charge of inattention or neglect is attempted to be brought.
There are one or two other points upon which I must be
permitted to touch.
First. The hospitals at Scutari are profusely supplied
with all food and luxuries for the sick. I will venture to
affirm that there is no hospital in London in which so
many extras are ordered and given : the number of fowls,
eggs, jellies, &c., used daily would provoke a very strong
remonstrance from the governors of any civil hospital, if
ordered by their medical officers. The bread supplied is
far better than that which the officers receive—the wine
and porter are excellent—the meat is of the best quality
the country can afford. Thanks to many kind friends in
England, especially to Mr. Arthur Smith of the Egyptian-
hall, the patients are abundantly supplied with books and
newspapers. The nurses, as far as my experience extends,
are most kind and attentive; in fact they are invaluable, as
the orderlies are necessarily inexperienced.
The great want is more medical officers. The present
staff is dreadfully overworked. Although the number of
patients to each officer is not apparently very large, vet,
from the serious and extremely complicated nature of the
cases, we have far more than we can properly attend to.
have between eighty and ninety. A friend of mine has
a hundred and fifty. Now, if these were ordinal? cases,

THE PRESS.

viz., many very slight, many more moderate, and a few
very bad, it might be possible to get through them, but with
such cases as we have it is a simple impossibility to give
each case the attention it merits.

The writer concludes by stating that he does not
impute wilful misrepresentation to the correspondent
of the journal in question, but imagines that he has
been misled by receiving his information from persons
not well informed on the facts.

Sroi.xz's long announced performance of
Fides in the Prophite has at length taken place, and
(says Galignani) by no means realised the expecta-
tions of success anticipated by her admirers.
THE SEASON OF THE ITALIAN OPERA has just ter
minated in Paris. The works produced were
Matilda di Shabran, by Rossini; Il Barbiere, Semi-
ramide, Otello, by the same master. Bellini's
Puritani, and Beatrice di Tenda. Donizetti's Linda
di Chamonix: Le Tre Nozze, by Alary ; and Gli
Arabi, by Pacini. Without doubt the great bait of
the season has been Verdi's Trovatore, which opera,
out of the eighty representations given during this
season, has been performed no less than twenty-
three times. It is asserted that if Verdi's Rigoletto
could have been produced, these two operas alone
would have rendered the season completely success-
ful in a financial point of view.

........
LADVERTISEPIENT.)—" No peremptory rule can well be
laid down for the guidance of nations any more than for
the conduct of individuals respecting interference with the
affairs of others. It is conceivable that a nation may be so
supereminent in power, so justly confident in its own
judicial qualifications, so unencumbered by nearer and
more pressing duties, as to be warranted in curbing the
excesses of foreign despots, allaying democratic disorders,
and protecting weak commnnities from the brutal oppres-
sion of the strong. Again, in the case of individuals, in-
terference between the oppressor and the oppressed may
be an act of manly duty. Oftentimes, however, when the
brave yet tender heart swells with sympathy and righteous
indignation, reason and justice hold back the ready right
arm, and compel us to abide in patience until the ways of
Providence are justified to men. A special charge en-
trusted to our care may command onr undivided attention.
Prior claims may press upon the conscience, and forbid
our undertaking new duties ere the former are discharged.
So in the case of a nation laden with grave responsibilities,
having long-standing evils to redress, and many deficien-
cies to supply, it would be a mixture of mockery and pre-
sumption to stretch forth an officious hand in aid of dis-
tant sufferers, whilst at her very doors, and in her inmost
chambers, pestilence and want, ignorance and crime, daily
contribute their miserable victims to the hospital and the
workhouse, the gaol and the graveyard. It may, however,
be maintained that the present war is undertaken, not for
the purpose of defending an oppressed community, but
simply to prevent an already powerful nation from acquir-
ing an increase of strength dangerous to the whole family
of nations on the Continent. In short, we are at war for
the sake of preserving the ' balance of power,' that beautiful
4iseovery of krngs and statesmen which has proved so fer-
tile a source of zrime, misery, and bloodshed to all the
races of Europe. We will, however, take liberty to doubt
whether the people of Great Britain would have oordially
entered into this orthodox view of the subject. In fact,
the gravest of our statesmen think it well at times to spice
their harangues with a seasoning of indignation against
the tyranny of Russian aggression, and raise their elo-
quence to a tepid heat by a dash of sympathy with the ill-
used Turks. gut, on the other hand, when our statesmen
desire, as does happen sometimes, to be precise and busi-
nesslike instead of vague and declamatory, they carefully
inform us that this is no war in aid of oppressed nationa-
lities; we are solemnly assured that we take the part of
Turkey, not because Russia is cruel, vicious, and glutton-
ous, but because she is likely to prove too powerful for our
own safety ; not because honour and humanity call us for-
ward, but because self-interest impels us from behind.
This is the statesman's view of the whole matter. We go

to war for the sake of that important personage—number
one. Away then with the sentimental slang about op-
pressed nationalities—the grandiloquent announcement
that we are engaged in resisting and subduing the spirit
of Cossack aggression—away with the vain expectation
that now at length the pure air of freedom will flow un-
checked through the length and breadth of Europe. It is
no mistake, we are fighting not for a principle, but for our
own ends ; not for the sake of humanity, but for the sake
of self."—From an " Inquiry into the War with Russia," by
an English Landowner—Hamilton and Adams, Paternoster-
row.