The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-23 00:00:00

HEALTH OF THE ARMY BEFORE
SEBASTOPOL.

The following letter, addressed to Lord Shaftes-
bnry, has been published : _ _

• "Balaklava. July 19.
" I have just reeeived your letter of the 6th hat. re-
. 'meeting the state of our noble army, a subject that ab-
sorbs all my thoughts. They are encamped, as you are
aware, in a new uncultivated country, subject to a high
temperature during summer (85 degs. in the shade, and
115 degs. to 120 dogs. in the sun), and a good deal of
the land occupied by the whole allied army is marshy
and malarious.
• "These topographical peculiarities determine the ex-
iitence of malarious diseases, chiefly intermittent, and
occasionally cholera, as we have had it at various periods.
Balaklava, where I am located, is the very worst point
of the whole occupation, and he local peculiarities and
b• ad sanitary state have caused great ,morality among
the troops on fatigue duty.
" It was the knowledge of this peculiarity that led us
to concentrate our eff ats on Balaklava, hectatee4t
oth shoveNothing
20,000 men went in and out of it every day.
could be worse than its condition. It is a smiahli port,g
land-locked, lying among lofty hills, crowded with tan ships,mas
the margins of the harbour formed with
marsh,
dead animals
hast
and filth of all kinds; the upper end a t
been used as a graveyard, where some hwasands of car-
cases of men and animals had beenburied, mostly in
water, and hardly covered with earth ; carcases floating
in the harbour, and also the refuse and blood of cattle
slaughtered on board ship ; no latrines but the hill sides,
and back yards of houses covered with filth in cense-
"e.
" Such was the condition of this place when we came
here. We have had great difficulties to contend with in
obtaining labour and materials, but we have at last suc-
ceeded in doing about all that is possible, bat not all
that is desirable.
" All our efforts have been unavailing to save the
place from- cholera, but the medical officers who inspect
ee V
.the ships in the harbour say that we have saved a great
~many lives.
• 4, Next as to the camp. One part of the camp is
„ situated in the plain, or rather valley of Balaklava, an
is: unhealthy, malarious district, without any very appa-
,.rent local cause of disease, except that it is marshy.
There has been a good deal of cholera there, which has
been stopped at once by changing the camps to higher
ground. In such a locality change of site is the only
remedy, and it is carried out wherever practicable ;
• speaking generally, the camp before Sebastopol is in a
t; very good state. It is clean and well attended to ; but
f.here again there are malarial spots to which the troops
ce are tied by the exigencies of the service ; affected regi-
, mente have been removed from time to time to new
• ground, often with beneficial effect ; but I need hardly
',point out that so vast a force, confined on a coru-
enparatively narrow surface, without any drainage, and
with all the filth buried in the soil if it cannot be
burnt, exposed always to a burning sun by day,
and to trench work by day and night, must suffer
snore or less. It speaks volumes for the care and
attention of. the authorities that the loss from disease
has been so little during the summer, because, do what
. they can, our troops are exposed to the exhalations from
the foal encampment of the other armies, which have
suffered far more from disease than our men have.
0, "The winter mortality was a far different thing from
the summer mortality. Hardly any. of the causes—
namely, bad food, want of rest, over-work, want of cloth-
ing and shelter, and exposure to the elements, which
caused scorbutis over the whole army—exist now. Ido
not think it can be fairly said that any of these causes
exist now to any extent ; all the then cases were ecor-
butie, and hence the awful mortality in the hospitals at
Scutari e it was exactly like the Irish famine fe, er ; now
_. we have malarial diseases—fever and cholera— the inten-
.. sity of which in our camp has been, no doubt, most ma-
teriaily lessened by the great care bestowed on the into.
I have myself gone among them and asked abeut their
provision aid clothing, &c. I have never been able to
elicit a single conapleiat, except one—namely, that they
were not in Sebastopol • they have always told me they
had nothing in the world else to complain of.
"Considering the local circumstancee, I am of opinion
, that the epidemics I have named have been mild in cha-
racter, and that we have certainly not suffered more
than, in such a climate, we bad a right to expect. Mai-
.
rhcea has been prevelent, hut there is a system of in-
spection in use for its discovery and treatment which
apneas to work as well as could be expected.
Lord Raglan suffered with many others, but, I fear,
neglected the diarrhoea. General Estcourt persisted in
going to duty while suffering from diarrhoea, and he,
too, died.
" I don't know a single person who has not had it.
" Our hospitals are the one point lam proud of. We
have first-rate men, and everything clean and beauti-
. fully ordered. I only wish we had a permanent staff of
orderlies thoroughly trained and kept at their work, in-
stead of the useless vagabonds who are too often sent to
attend the sick, because they are fit for nothing else.
The present arrangement for the sick and wounded are
to treat the latter entirely here, at least until they are
convalescent, and then to send only convalescente, or
the sick who had arrived at the best possible point, to
Scutari. From the latter place I have just returned.
The hospitals are really beautiful. We have nothing in
London to compare to them in their sanitary relations.
It is a perfect treat to walk through them. The air ie as
pure inside as out. Our sanitary work comes out well
there. Some points still require improvement, and the
work is going on. The change in three months is incre-
dible.
The water question may be summed up as follows :
With proper care there is enough ; without proper care
it will require much labour to obtain a proper supply ;
after the dry weather is over there will be water enough
for any purpose.
"In regard to the burial of the dead, 'a our camp it
appears to be properly done, judging at least from any
instances I have seen of interments. The proper authori-
ties say it is always done in conformity with the regula-
tions; the duty is defectively done in the trenches, from
the dangers and exigencies of the trench service. There
are complaints on this head, as also of the effluvia from
excrementitious matter there. I have sent to General
Simpson a plan of dealing with the evil. The burial of
animals is, or rather has hitherto been, well attended ter.
I have not seen an unburied carcase in our camp for
months before a day or two ago. I saw two at that time,
and instantly reported them to head-quarters. There
are, however, plenty of unburied carcases about ; they
are not ours, but belong to the other armies. The ne-
cessity of common co-operation to sanitary matters was
represented by us some time ago. I may give another
ex imple.
"The Turks always make latrines near water if they
can, and I have had to watch all sources supplying our
camp, for I have found them digging close to the very
heads of springs.
"The following facts will show you the health of the
troops at the present time :
" Week ending July 7.—Strength 41;593, total deaths
150, deaths from cholera 71, deaths front feter 17, deaths
from diarrhoea 19, deaths from dysentery 2.
"Week ending July 14.—Strength 42,513, total
deaths 123, deaths from cholera 55, deaths ti • o fever 18,
deaths from diarrhcee 10, deaths frcm dysentery 5.
" The deaths front wounds for these two weeks were
44 and 30.
" Thin shows a large balance against disease : but
still, considering all things, my wonder is that the mor
telity from epidemics now prevalent among us is so small.
It will assist-you further to estimate our sanitary ciindi-
tion if I compare it witn things at home familiar to you.
Ilalaklava harbour is much sweeter than the Dames,
and the town is cleaner than nine-tenths of the lower
districts of London, Manchester, or Liverpool. Liver-
pool dock-basins smell worse every day than Balaklava
harbour did at the worst. When the town itself was
held up to the reprobation ef the civilised word from its
anburied carcases and filth, it was not worse than entire
villages I could name in our own country, and it was
about on a par with the district where knackers' yards,
private slaughter-houses, and unwholeecane trade exist in
the Borough, and where cholera was so fatal last year.
" I think it right to mention this comparispe, in order
that the truth should be known. The same may be -aid
about the sanitary condition of the camp; putting out
of sight the local malaria, the camp is in a very notch
better state than the towns and villages at home out of
which the men have come.
" It Is ttleo very satisfactory to state that almost every
practicable improvement we have advised for the cetrip
we have found already in operation in some part of it.
We have only wished the worst practices to be avoided,
and the best systematically adopted. But in doing this
all depends on the commanding officers of the regiments,
and hence different regiments show different degrees of
improvement. We have also found the medical officers
thoroughly alive to the nature of the changes required ;
- representing them -to the authorities, but without power
to carry, them out.
"These tutu; plain facts . Appear to
.me to point out
clearly than military hygiene should be -a portion, and a
compulsory portion, of the education and examination
for -service of every officer, whether medical or riot,
entering the service. If it were inculcated as a duty
- thatabe main end of official routine is not only diecip,-
. line, fighting, and treating disease, but also preserving
the troops in a state of efficiency, I believe that a vast
deal.of the loss of life in-armies would be avoided. This,.
in fact, is proved by the experience of the navy. The.
naval brigade in their camp before Sebastopol (1;400
strong) lost 89 men last winter, while regiments close to
them were almost swept away,
" I believe there is no point eintiiin the instructions of
the Sanitary Commission that' has'not been attended to
in the terms of those instruction. We have ma 'e every
needful
and recommended the adoption of all'
necessary measures; • We fis:ve had the most needful of
e these nneantinen 'carried out- under, our inspectors, and
o.fthoo in the camp are being carried nut by the military.
heittfboritiess charged with their usual execution. You
are aware, however, that in all sanitary matters iin.re-
• enutti og care. is required to Meese osmtinual success, and
at that illy relaxation may do mischief. The (nee-ores'
themselves, moreover, are.af such a nature that only
those- daily administering theas Cua fully nu„, what is
d„km*,..and what is undone and hence the necessity for
n'''l7.ll'n'ethecation anti examination hi hygiene I have referred
3•"''''D-10Yethout that no mere Jeaternal pressure, such as
•
0-Irslukvatzerciqed, oat be of lasting benefit, bee:tun-I the
isCrparties who have to carry them out have no knowleJee
*hew' theie nece-sity or impoiaance: and hence bane hearil
el 'the-meet ti ef '
11. *ingestions cnroin. from military. medical
c.Jnofficere called `Doctors' crotchete,' and thrown aeide.
le -"At present I believe little. if
Anything, more cae he
• done here in the way of initiation of camp sanitary urea,
es :nun ; the only difficulty is in ineuring tee continued
s application of those.
measure, and thin the militery au-
letethoritien alone can do. It might be well to vest the '
i4ecisfons of msdioal boards with something au
-
p: like , •
ority.
p!au 1 ha-re mentioned vronii he the bast ono
:ffliezzg tla aziletiag iiithery eptca moat sEi.iuti •
-44 3 -
#3.1/ no e

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