The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

THE ARMY BEFORE SEBASTOPOL.

RR. ROEBUCK'S C

Yesterday the groceedioge of the committee did
set soeutteace until put twelve, there not being a solllatent
number of numbers present to constitute a quorum. In-
deed for one or two days put some three or four hon. mem-
bers have been regularly absent.
Dr. Andrew Smith was recalled, and handed in a variety
of returns and reports adverted to in his evidence before
the committee last week, consisting of letters and reports
Iron Dr. Henries, while in charge of the hospital at Scutari,
with inventories of the medical comforts supplied at various
times to the troops, adding that others were being prepared
in the Crimea. He suggested that the storekeeper (Hr.
Bridget) should be ezamirred on particular items, such as
the supply of 1,400 doses of port wine, if the committee
wished to be assured of their perfect correctness, and in
order to rectify any apparent discrepancy. Imputation
had bees cut upon him by the public sad in the news-
; but he hoped the committee, foe his sake, would
thoroughly sift the matter.
The Chairman—Depend upon it it will be sifted for the
sake of the public.

Mr. Drummond—Wei you receive airy offers from medical
men to give their services vatatemsly. sad amongst others
an offer from Dr. Msct•hersoa to that effect ?
Dr. Smith—Thsre were several who wrote offering their
eerv.eee. _ _

Mr. Layard—Did any of the medical nraetitienen of to
take ch.rige of the hospitals at home to *apply the place of
those who moot out ? - _

_Dr. smith—Nn one made offers to bins, bat several
applied for appuintmants, and he was overwhelmed with
:here applications ; in fact half the clerks in the Mlles were
engaged in replying to these applicatioss. He (Dr. Smith)
employed as many as he wanted.
Mr. Layard—DA not some medical men in London of
high standing offer to take shares of the hospital me as
to Ones at poor disposal the me-rises of the military medical
men for t►e troops oat in the Crimea
Dr. Smith—Not that I am aware of.

Mr. Layard—Did not Dr. Webb offer bit married', is.
eigionended by Dr. Qoaio, of University College Hospital,
gratuitously ?
Dr. Smith thought be did, but he could not charge kis
memory with Datum oat of between 400 and 800.
Kr. Maxwell, one of the members of the medical commis.
don sent out by the government to inspect the state of the
hospital at Scutari, end for general medical and sanitary pur
poses, was then called, and explained the circumstances
solder which the 00atetnniOn wee appointed. Dr: Smith
was desirous of sending out two medical officers sad •
secretary to make then inquiries, and Irksome was proposed
as secretary, bet not likine that merely ministerial
he was appointed joint commissions? witrairdo
Spence, who was lost in the Prince, and Dr. Commis'.
He spoked let specific instructions to Dr. Smith ; bat be
gave him no specific instrutioss. lie saw the Duke of
Newcastle at the War-offiee, and had • conversation with
him se 23rd October es the Wised, and he then told him
be bad received no specific instructions, bat that be
ssilsolfilmil the intention of the oommiesion was to inquire
late tbe state of the bospitel, end with reference to the sup-
pits of medicine, linen medical comforts, and this. el
that kind. The commission on which he acted was set MN
not before be left England, bet the Duke of Neweestle
told bite that what be wished was a mandaing investigados;
that be wished the trails, and the whole troth; and
exhorted him, in a very Mon and very earnest manner,
sot to sweat anything, for that it was the desire of the
gireessmest to hare experiesee from the pest. so as te seed
Mem Re the futon. He bad mislaid the copy of the stew
misdeal eppeintiag him to go oat.
The Christmas—Did the eommissiot contain soy statee
maim le whet yen were te de ?
Mr. Maxwell—lns. He drew the Duke of Neweedlebt
attention to the necessity of basing specific iseteMeliegia
which his grace immediately serpoeseed. He tell them it
was very important to go out at once, and that the
Coos should follow them. The written instructions readied
them at Scutari at &subsequent date. Soon after their arrival
at Constantinople, ea 44 November, Dr. Spence went if
on a special mission, and was lost in the Prince. The coma.
mission did not *maids any instructions as to • wens,
bet the commission wan to be joist and combined. Withest
three they could not act, and the less of Dr. Spence at first
paralysed the commission. They then offered the vacant
commissionerthip to the Rev. Mr. Osborne, who declined it,
and subw %neatly they appointed Dr. Laieg,who was a second-
class surgeon es the Vistas. The commission set to work,
on the following enorniag. The subject of their inquiry wee
rather complicated, but it struck him that the first thing to
he attended to was to cell for explanations relative to the
state of the mediein• Mores and medical comforts. They
called before them the apothecary and purveyor is chief,
end their reports as this subject appeared in the appendix,
in which they celled on the &to:motheaten to send in as
GeoOant of the state of the Morse en the let of Sepember,
from the last day of their taking stock before the battle
of the Alma. They desired them to tend in an account of
all stir.. they bad teseitred sabot wally to shot date, dis-
tinguishing from what sources they bad received them,
whether from government or private sources, together
with the use they had made of them.
The Chairmen—Did they wort in a return ?
Mr. Maxwell—They did not. The apothecary died, and
at no returns were made for another fortnight by hie sue.
censor, be (Mr. Maxwell) thought it was his dewy to go
down and passim the state of the stores himself. Mr.
Wreford wrote to state that be bad banded the letter of the
commissioners to Mr. Ward, who was then purveyor, and
that Mr. Ward would give his earliest attention to the
matter. The commission had powers to take evitinee,
bet they bad no power to remove or report. He waited two
or three weeks before the reams came in. Ha went down
to the stores sad found that not a single attempt had been
made at even the commencement of • return. He asked to
see the books, sad all he weld fled wee a letter book and a
.trap- book. He did not understand much about booboo
keep leg, but be examined these boo ks, and he found that
there was not a &ogle entry in them from the 24th or flew
teener to 281 of November. The books were mere blesike.
The Chairman—All this, I suppose, you state in your
report ?
Mr. Maxwell said they stated generally that they examined
the stores.
Lord Seymour—Were there no other books ?
Mr. Mssooll—D. d not see any, and the apothecary *he
succeeded the one who died did not know what be hod be
store. Mr. Reid was the apothecary who died, and Mr.
Macintosh wee his sums rotor He thought, however, it wee
not the dirty of tin commission to try Wiese men for mimeo-
duet, or to make accusetions in their report, but merely to
indicate in the report how and where the evils &roes.
The Chairman—But in your report you do not give
Mr. Maxwell—it states the spiel& sources of the evil
generally. The commission thought they had ao power to
bold these paints, up to public odium where they had so
power of defending themselves, but to deal with them upon
ski elements and price plats of jades understood in West-
Ides thrhall.
By L'td Seymour—Was not this apothecary's store
applicable to all the hospitals ?
Mt. memerall—lt was the heed store, applicable not only
for the howital at Scutari, bet for the convalneent
and the whole army in the Crimea, and yet they did not
know what wag in it. There wars two or three subordinere
stores, ter eargekiee, established, which were supplied from
the main store, 10,4 he found, on more than one oe-seism,
when it had been d.selased that there were no medicates is
the hospital, that it a.rose from an application having bees
made to °mint theatres lee Or dispeneen,who. looking into his
bottle or pigeon hole for eartieular medicines, end, on seeing
none, telling the orderly who made the application that
there was o ins in the store, and the man walked out sad
took back this message to thing who sent him, and heath it.
ease to be reported that there wore no medicines in she
hospital.
The Chairman—And yet you established the fact talk
then was a store of medicines at the time?—Rev. Mr.
Osborne on one °ceasing told him it bad been stetted that
Dr Andrew Smith bad sent out a qesstity of amours of
merlon of iron toe gangrene wounds, and es inquiry for it
at the hospital it appeared that • lairs quantity had been
sent out, but that it bad gone down in the Priem. The
statement that had gone abroad to the effect that there were
so stores, duobtloras arose from the fact fist the storeksepen
did not know they were really in possession of the m, for, on
on. occesioo, when Mrs. Brambridgs, who went out with
Miss Nightingale, syyln d throe times for some chloride of
lime, the was told there was nose, bat en witness ooiog to
the hospital the apothecary told him there was a steel of
90th.. of it, and he forthwith obtained some fie Miss
Nightingale.
To Mr. Roebuck—lt was tke dory of the di ed
whom one was attached to each surgery, to have nplt rod,
the medical stores.
To Sir John Pakington—Andrews end Barrett were two
of the dispenthrs whose names be remembered. Thy dis-
pensers acted under the authority of the principal medical
officer, who at that time wee Dr. Malian,. Wither made
no report as to the deficiency of medicines; nor did be
know if any was made by the medical officers, or by idles
Nightingele.
To Lord Eleyntver—He did sot make say inquiry as to
what were the regulations of the apothecary's department
when be found the apothecary's stores in the state he had
described.
To the Chairman—Mr. Ward was the purveyor at the
them' hospital, and Mr. 'hefted acted under hint in time
'opacity at the barrack hospital. Mr. Ward promised lo
furnish a return i, the commissioner as to the amonne et
.stores in We department, but they did net abode M sip
after Christmas, and then it only .embrased its months of
May, Jim, July, and August exclusively, for which they
did not want it, and it did nut relate to Seprember for
which they chi. fie reqeirad it. About that time wine,.
west to Beleklave, and on his rotors to Scutari he fond
Mr. Ward, the chief purveyor, was dead. Before the death
Milk. Ward, Mr. Wi 'ford always insisted Ott be (Mr.
Wreford) wee only the purveys:es deputy, and not ismer-
ibis for the department.
To Mr. J. Bali -I,toiing Mr. Ward was dead, es his
ei.(eriutthezapuresezetoreret,tshuderepartnhootrokni
ineaßsttluwasakl, adnveiii:ozdeplatlia.tatbreathowieserinetusiiiddfoilr
sot fool sonipetait to do so, nor did he the that they bad
bees regularly kept. It would have ftqaired en sethantant
be de that.
To Mr. Roebuck—The barrack hospital was generally in
saubstentlel Rate of repair, though mono:the wards was

net well adapted for hospital purposes, holey deficient Is
ventilatioe. The hospital was nu very tidy ; bat, with MN
itheeptios of the eflovium from the privies, be eew si-
dling ia the wards that wee positively offeweivt.
The attendees*, en the skit was very deficient;- and It
Mack him that the whole system of orderlies was nakedly
detective. At Scutari the orderlies were men who had bees
takes from the ranks; they were meetly convalescents ; and
they did not strive to understand the vocation of an orderly,
because they were constantly liable to be summoned OS
return and um in the rinks. With respect to the privies,
it always appeared to him that their bad state was as mash
owing to the filthy habits of the common soldiers, as to any
defects in the sonetraction of the privies theme/vet Is
the barrack hospital there always seemed to him to he •
divided authority betweca the medical inspector, Dr.
Meanies, and the purveyor. One great defect In that
hospital, too, was that it was partly a barracks and partly
ea hospital, and that always stood in the way of
improvement in the hospital department. The kitchen at-
tached to the barrack hospital contained thitteen largo
copper boilers. That was enough for the ordinary grants of
the hospital, but not for the eatra restore ; and four sup.
plemental kitchen, were erected. The system of distelbot-
log the food in the hospital was radically defective, this
meet being frequently served op almost raw. When he first
west to &uteri be found sick men in the hospital trequeutly
without linen, and beds were also to be seen with-
out linen.. The washing at the general hospital wee
does bye come of eight or tin Armenians. There wee no
fault to fled with the washing there, so far as quantity wan
concerned ; but when • man sent his shirt to be washed he
I was nein be would get It back again ; and whes
that wan the case, such of the sick u had
shine, however dirty, Wire sot I,ll3ioif to part
with them. The washing at the Wrack hospital was
at first dose by en Italian or a Levantine, named Opted,
under a usenet, which however was repeatedly broken by
' him, and latterly it was done by a person named Parry, tie
loonienction with Uptoni. Many of the sick contrived Is
get their washing done by the wives of a Adieu. On this
week ending November 4, the number of patlrmta at the
barrack hospital was 1.400; on the week tuning the 11th
of N.,vember it was 2,062; on that imams the 18th. it sat
1,958; sad on that ending the, 26th it was 2,123. Shore,
after Kiss Nightingale arrived she set up a washing sets.
blishment, partly from her 01111 (undo, which she had fitted
up with coppers, and there about 500 shine were washed is
a week, aad about 160 other necessary evicted. [Wanes,
here gave an account of the medical comforts famished lot
the hospitals daily, by Miss Nightingale, partly from het
own private resources, and partly from the public store*
there, sometimes in one day as =soy as 13 gallons
of chicken broth and 40 gallons of arrowroot ] He added
that some of the comforts a up;died by her we.. supplied, nut
because they were not in store at the purveyor's, but be-
cause those at the purveyor's were not of good quality
Re differed with Mr. Macdonald as to the quality of tts
port wine in the hospitals. That which witness tasted theft
was much better than a Tut deal they tested in the Temple.
(Wither is a barrister.) He considered that the services of
' Miss Nightingale were invaluable in the hospital, &swell for
ghat she did herself as for the mum in which she kept
the purveyors to their duties. The condition of
the men, as respected their shirts, when they
MIN into the hospital, was very much attributshis
Is their having been obliged to leave their keepsake be-
bled them shoo they landed in the Crimes. Minn./Ws.
with provided, from her own private auras, 10,000 sham,
from October or November until the Ist of February, and
within the same period the purveyor distributed about
11.000 shirts.
Mr. Roebuck asked Mr. Maxwell if the committee were
to assume that the result of the government sending the me-
dical commission, of which he was a member, to Scutari, to
inquire into the state of the hospitals, was that they elm phy
reported two months afterwards a state of things which was
known to have existed loag before they went there ?
Mr. Maxwell replied that he presumed the government
did unwind him, a barrister, out with two medical gentle&
man, to take the charge of the hospitals. Their duty was
to inquire and report. It the government had intends'
that toe commission wee to have the management of the'
hospitals he apprehended it would have been differrn
constituted, asd their duties in that respect would ha
been strictly defined. He untainted to say, in reply te .
Roebuck, that with the medical department of the hoepltals
the eomausaionere did not interfere in the way of =aking
alterations or suggestions • but they made several surges-
Moos on subjects within the province of Lard Will
Poulett. Further then that, whatever benefit resulted
from the commission, that would not come feu prudes,.
effect until after they made their report to the government,
and measures were taken upon the recommendations of that
report
Sy Mr. Layard—He did not think that the root of the eve
Is the hospitals at &uteri lay in the want of some definite
bead then, for there was a lefinite head there.
The witnen was ordered to give hie attendance again be.
fere the committee out the lista April, to whicled.y the in-
quiry stands adjourned.

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION.