The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-23 00:00:00

SMYRNA AND Tr--------•,HospiTAL.

OZONE ♦

OF THI DAILY /MIN
SMYRNA, 0. The hospital for the sick and wounded fromtlio
Crimea, established here under the care of civil mw
dical men, bids fair to prove another of the grrdt
blunders of the Aberdeen administration. The tout
is about the last place in the Levant adapted foe se
hospital. Fevers generated in the marshy sail oo
which the town is built are rife every apriog sat
autumn, and Sr. aggravated by the poisonous odoege
exhaled from the open drains which fester in
street. Narrow, ill-paved lanes, undrained Wane
and stagnant pools of filth are the chief chasms*.
tics of the town. Ravines saturated with roam*,
are the curse of the country. Supplies of good ps.
visions are abundant, and this is the only thing thot.
can be said in favour of the selection of Smyrna as k
site for an hospital. With Sinope, the banks dais,
Bosphorus, and the Princes Islands open to ea
chows, the blundering administration rejected throo-
health'y sites for what must prove a fever hole for
our soldiers. It may be said there was a building
ready for us at Smyrna, but none at the other plum..
This is true; but what would have been so easy io-
our kingdom of manufactures as to send out proper
buildings of wood, iron, and glass, ready to be pet
together for the reception of the sick upon any healthy?
site near the scene of action ? Smyrna is five days,.
journey 'timid from the Crimea,and we know enoegi
of the horrors of a transport filled with sick soldiers.
to estimate the importance of a site like Sinop
within 24 hours' sail of Balaklava.

Then as to the selection of the hospital staff. Some
of the best of the younger hospital surgeons of Los.
don who could be induced to leave their private •
practice have been sent to Smyrna. Mr. Holmes
Outs, Mr. Spencer Wells, Mr. Wordsworth, with
juniors of very considerable hospital experience,
have been sent to a station where no surgical mums
are ever likely to arrive. These gentlemen, selected
for their ability as operators, are solely employed iA
treating fever, dysentery, and scurvy. It is true that
some physicians have been sent, and find cuts
adapted to their previous habits and studies, but the '
surgeons are entirely out of their element.
The next blunder was that no information wag :
given to Lord Raglan respecting the contemplated
arrangements at Smyrna, so that when the hospitals
at Balakiava and Scutari became too full, he seat 800
sick to Smyrna, with a medical staff detached tali
their duties in the field, to an hospital where no pesgs,
ration whatever had been made for the reception of
sick. No bedcbedsteads, food. or any other museum,
had been provided ; yet, to the great credit of Dr. Has.
phrey and his staff, but very few days elapsed be a
every man was on a bed with a bedstead, and fresh ‘l.
provisions were regularly procured. A very active
purveyor, Mr. Jenner, is also entitled to great credit '
for his successful exertions; but the mistake was is
seeding the men down and leaving them in the
ship. in the bay, before all this had been arranged.
A great part of the Civil Medical Staff have now
arrived, and carry on the medical duties of the
hospital, but it is still under the system of the mill-
teary hospitals, as Dr. Meyer, the Civil Medical Super-
uitendent, has not arrived, Dr. Humphrey remaining
u chief. Thus the system which has proved such a
miserable failure is continued, and were it not for a
great deal of good professional feeling, very uaplet-
sant clashing might have occurred between the mili-
tary medical officers and the civilians, who were sup-
planting them. When the whole of the civil staff arrive,
the experiment will be tried whether the system of
our civil hospitals works better than that of the mili-
tary—but it must not be concealed that the civilians
are working in a fever bed and that every meshes -
should be made to move their establishment to a more .
healthy locality before the summer sets in.
Passing from the medical department to the cow
miseariat, Smyrna affords other examples of gull •
dial blundering. Mr. Smith, of the commissariat
staff, passed here in April last, and contracted for
the supply of 4,000 oxen at 41. per head, for the us
of sur troops at Gallipoli and elsewhere. The oxen
were procured and the 16,0001. paid, with a clear -
profit of 6,0001. to the contractor, so it is said. It
will scarcely be believed that not one of these ona
has ever been sent for. Yet, such is the fact ; while
our troops were perishing for want of fresh provi.
Mons. While our transports were lying idle these
oxen were being fed at government expense in the
neighbourhood of Smyrna, and John Bull hu to ;
stand the loss of those who die or are stolen. It is -
said that so many are reported to be either one or the
other, that not 1,200 of the original 4,000 remain.
Some even suggest that the beef bought for the use
of the sick in hospital is procured by paying a second
time for some of these very oxen which were paid for
eleven months ago. Verily, John Bull is admirably
served by his commissariat officers.