The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

THE P B SS, NOVEMBER 14, 1857.

former include under one cipher invalids, convalescents,
and congas returned to France.
A ud further, he boldly states that, as the result
of careful observation and analysis, lie is con-
vinced the Emperor of the French was much
influenced in his desire to make peace in 'HMS

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from the following causes :
First, that the French army had become in numbers
and discipline, materiel, resources, and moral force infe-
rior to that of England; second, that an exhaustive pro-
cess was in activity and could not be stayed, which put
in jeopardy its military status among the allies; third,
that large conscriptions would excite murmurs and memo-
ries among a peasantry not rewarded for sacrifices of
kindred, as nnclor the first Napoleon, by daily bulletins of
military glory and conquered territory.
On the shores of the Bosphorus I reasoned myself to
these conclusions; since then I have again examined the
grounds on which they are founded. Let me endeavour to
make their truth and force equally evident to those who
do me the honour to accompany me—first, in a medical
visit to the French Crimean ambulances in the winter of
1855 ; accord, on a professional inspection of, and resi-
dence in, the French hospitals on tha Bosphorus in
February and March, 1856 ; third, to an examination of
the specific diseases which prevailed in the one and the
other at those periods.
Itwould far exceed our space to follow at any
length the careful and minute comparisons
drawn by Dr. Bryce between the French and
English medical systems, whether on the field
or in hospital; we shall content ourselves with
merely giving his results. First, then, the
actual losses of the French army he
estimates at 93,000 men, in opposition to
Marshal Vaillant's statement of 69,000, and
the wretched state of the French hospitals he
believes to have contributed materially to these
losses. These hospitals during the war were
constantly held up to us as models. Dr.
Bryce very summarily disposes of these false
statements. The French hospitals, he de-
clares, were far inferior to ours in every re.
spect 11l ventilated and filthy, they were
breeding-beds of fever. Nor was the condi-
tion of the patient superior to that of
the hospital. The men were brought
in and stretched on the foul bed
from which a dead body had just been taken.
It was " painfully evident," observes Dr. Bryce,
that no personal ablution had preceded the
patients being put to bed, nor had their shirts
been removed since they entered the hospital.
Under such circumstances we are not sur-
prised to hear that not one in fire of the men
received in the French hospitals at Constanti-
nople were sent back to service in the Crimea.
In his summary of the results of his inves-
tigations, Dr. Bryce places before us very ex-
plicitly the rise and progress of typhus in the
French army in 1855-6, and he certainly sup-
ports his argument well :
War for the French army on the actual terrain had, con-
sequently, become not more difficult on account of its I
general sanitary state at this time, than impossible with
this hospital provision for its casualties. To this result
the utter prostration of the medical staff by death, disease,
and disproportionate duties, had already contributed its
significant share. Forty-six surgeons had died from
typhus alone. Scarcely one escaped an attack. There
was fear lest the sick would be left utterly withoat skilled
help; while the Minister of War, implored to send out as
many surgeons as possible, declared his inability to furnish
any from France, because " II n'en avait plus a sa disposi-
tion, et le recrutement ne repondai: pas aux besoins."—
(Baudens.)
M. BALI lens seizes firmly. and boldly exposes this essen-
tial property of camp fever. "11 s'agissait de deployer
des mesures energiques, sans quoi la mortalite eat ate
sans limites." He made known to the Emperor, through
the Minister of War, " dens quelle situation critique )'in-
vasion du typhus place l'arusee d'Orient." Again, refer-
ring to the same period—February, 1856—and circum-
stances, the same authority exclaims, " Nous etions
menaces d'un veritable et affrenx dessstre." Another
French officer of excellent means of information, speaking
of this conjuncture, declared that " cette armee aurait
certainernent pen toute entiere s'il avait fallu lui faire
quelques marches en Crimee."
So much for the acknowledged perilous position of the
French army at the close of the war. The measures
taken immediately upon the signature of peace, in order
to arrest the progress of the distemper, confirm what I
have advanced with regard to a state of war being incom-
patible with their adoption. First, Marshal Pelissier
quitted his belligerent encampments, and formed new
ones on the southern heights, three leagues distant from
his former lines ; and, as far as practicable, a fresh em-
placement for hospital tents and huts was provided ; then,
M. Bautlens, in virtue of exceptionable powers wisely con-
ferred on him, seized upon the same event to separate the
typhus cases from those of ordinary diseases,—retaining
the former in the Crimea, and transferring the others to
Constantinople, to make room for whom six thousand
sick were embarked for France within a month. By these
I and other sanitary devices, admirably planned and deter-
iminedly carried out, he exalted medical science by estab-
lishing its control over this terrible destroyer, The