The Express.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

THE ARMY SURGEONS.

liatract from a letter of a surgeon serving in the
Crimea, dated Dec. 21, 1833 :

"Can von wonder that we surgeon., who have
passed the greater part of the years 1854 and 1855
111 the field, should be disconteated ? that what we
have had to go through-1 allude less to the fatigues
sod chances of war than to the neglect std obloquy
we have had to endure—should be constantly upper-
most in our thoughts? There are some of us here,
and note few, who, having entered the army service
at rises varying from 22 to 28 years—the limits of
age for entering in our time—having waited eleven
years and upwards as assistants for promotion, came
oat as surgeon, in cbatge of regiments, and have re.
seemed at our posts ever since, without quitt.ng them
for a day. We have seen honours, rewetds, rapid
promotion, increased pry and allowances, lucrative
appointments, given with no niggard band to our
companions; not one gilt to ul. Officers who
joined from school have become our equals
in relative rank after Ilegg than three years' service,
have been made field officers in six years; and others
who started for the East on a level with ourselves
are now lieutenant-colonels, Companions of the Bath,
and what not. Do nor think we are jealous et this
promotion when it Las been obtained by distin-
guished service; but we who are on the spot know
how often, for the Gazeite phrase, 'distinguished
f wily interest' might be substituted with propriety
and justice. New military establishments on all
sides, additions and extra aid to old establishment*,
have furnished situations for officers ' at:attached;
or have provided others with staff psy and allowances
in addition to their regimental pay. Commissariat
officers draw r war pay,' engineer officers ' double
pay,' in addition to the field allowance common to
all. None of these advantages have we surgeon. had.
The authorised complement of medical officers for the
field has never been maintained, so that the deaths
and other casualties which have occurred among us
have not led to the proportionate promotion of the
survivors. The introduction of the civil element' has
shut out from us the appointments which have spring
into existence with the institution of the new medico.
mi Wary establishments. Our exertions, our endaraoce,
our persistence in the performance of our duties, have
gone for nothing: in vain have recommendations,
trom authorities medical or authorities military, been
forwarded home : hitherto not one of us has received
decoration or reward. Nay, those who have quitted
their posts, and gone home, among the medical offi-
cers. have fared best: higher situations have been
found for them than they had in the scene of action
which they quitted. When I remember all that 63-
enrred armed me in Bulgaria, at Alma. and during
last winter—that climax of misery, when half starvet
half clothed, the sights I saw and the physical
'offering I endured drove me at times almost to
despair as I lay awake order the frail flapping cause
of my tent—l wonder that I did not quit too. Sick
in heart and bode, I could have done so had I chosen.
Little do those Medical officers who left before that
time, or who have only come since, know
what we underwent daring those dreary nights and
days, when men had to be forced into the trenches
who were fit only to be patients in hospital—when
patients in hospital wuted and died sway, and we,
for want of the commonest essential,' for nursing and
treatment, could do little to alleviate their sufferings.
Yet now we learn that a Board of Medical Officers is
London, half of whom served a couple of months or
so in the Crimes, and then left it, the other half
having served in the campaign at all, have been
called together to adjudicate upon our interests, and
to offer advice to the Minister for War whether the
service of medical officers in the field should count of
more worth than service at home ; and they advise
that it should not ! Medical officers in the field,
say they, have the advantage of gaining experience
in surgery. For whose itdvantage do military surgeons
acquire this experience—only for their own prints
advantage, or for the benefit of the State? They ins-
-Iply the former • and, therefore, the risks of the cam.
Ipaign are balanced by the acquisition of professional
knowledge."