The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-20 00:00:00

THE SICK AND WOUNDED FUND.

SCUTARI, APRIL s.—On the northern slope of the hill
at Pera, overlooking the gardens of the British Ambas-
sadur's palace, those gardens within which Lord Carlisle
roamed at pleasure, and outside of which Commander
Oldmixon chafed and fretted, stands, amid other decre-
pit Turkish houses, one assigned to our sick merchant
seamen, and called, in right of that occupation, an hospital.
If the term " hospital" should mean a place suited to the
recovery of men from disease, this building has no real
claim to the title, and I step a little aside from my proper
field of action to notice another instance of neglect and
another scene of wretchedness which has hitherto,
amid grander evils, lain hidden and unproclaimed. This
institution is under the charge of the English Consul,
and is supported by a rate of ld. per ton levied upon all
British merchant vessels which enter the port. Its ,hief
medical officer is the physician to the Embassy. Com-

plaints have at various times for many years Past been
made, some privately and some pub!icly, of its inefficiency,
to use no stronger word, and there was a design on the
pars of the Government to provide better accommoda-
tion ; but this design has only lately begun to b 3 car-
ried into effect, and the new hospital, which is to
deserve the name, and of which Galata is the
site, is only now so far in course of erection
as that it may possibly come into use next autumn.
What, in the interim, is the existing provision is now to
he told. An old and rotten fabric is the external view.

Within, the first object is the dead-house, and this, with
the kitchen and the washhouse, or rather washing shed,
is the whole of the ground floor. When I saw it yester-
day, there were three corpses lying reedy for burial,
one that of a poor follow who died of Asiatic cholera
in 17 hours from his seizure ; another a case of
typhus. Above stairs, the first anti second More,
each consisting of three or four rooms op, ning one
into another, were filled with sick ; they were then
46 in number, but there were others waiting for
admission. They were principally merchant sea-
men, but some of them had come from transports taken
up by Government; many were boys, a few blacks and
Maltese ; one, a well-spoken elderly man, the steward
of a trader. The diseases were various enough ; two
men had gangrene of the feet sub .equent upon typhus ;
one had passed through the more fatal, but retained the
minor symptoms of cholera. Several had fever of .an
uncertain type, many were suffering from severe and
chronic sores, partially scrofuleue, partially caused by
wounds or ill treatment. There was no separation
of cases, and no possibility of separating them ; the.
apartments were all crowded, the beds often touch-
ing one another ; in one room, 12 feet by 15 feet,
there were six patients, the only interval being in
the centre. The place was not cen-idered to be
overfilled, as they had once ha 1 90 in it. How-
ever, apart from the impurity of atmosphere consequent
upon crowding or intermixture of diseases, the whole
building was poisoned by fetid and anamoniacel exhala-
tions ; constructed of wood, now der eyed and moulder-
ing, it is impregnated from basement to roof with
noxious and sickening odours. Of four cases of cholera
two have died within the la- t few days. The resident
authority is an Italian apothecary, who does not speak
English, or very little. Tne cook and the attendants
are Turks. There is no area round the house, and the
only open side is that towards the nerrow street, over-
shadowed by the trees of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's
garden. Such is the British seamen's hospital at
Pere. Miserable as it is, and little likely to be re-
sorted to except from sheer necessity, its funds an now
in arrear, owing to the additional pressure thrown upon
it by the conflux of trading and transport vessels to
Constantinople. There was last quarter a deficiency of
2001., and there will be as large or a larger defieiency
during the present one. Application has been made
to the Admiralty to accept the invalided seemen of
transport ships as a part of their natural charge, but,
whatever decision may have been taken with r epect to
this point has not yet he e i effectually carried out ; for
a sailor belonging to the Australian, one of the trans-
ports employed in conveying sick from Balaklava, is
one of the later inmates. As yet lam not prepared
to say that the mere application of funds will nail to
supply either better accommodation or better at-
tendance. There are difficulties in Turkey nut to be
overcome except by the exercise of power ; but I shall
scarcely be thought to be exceeding my commission if a
portion of the money subscribed should, in the absence
of other imperative claims, be appropriated to the sea-
man in place of the soldier. It is a subject to which
further allusion shall be made, even if the endeavour to
procure some alleviation of the evil should prove un-
euccessful.
The warmer days of spring, with their chill morn-
ings and evenings, and their heavy dews at night,
bringing up from the soil whatever of rank and un-
wholesome miasma it contains, begin to distinguish
locality from locality, and show where dangers lurk
beneath the vivid tints of herbage and blossom. If
mere beauty of scene and sunny glow of pleasure-garden
could atone by their cheering aspect for the presence of
infection, the group of buildings at Haider Pasha would
appear a fair sojourn for an invalid. The fruit trees are
all in bloom around and among the detached edificee,
and the meadows which stretch between them and the
sea is a carpet of golden flowers. But the nearer view
is less inviting than the superficial one, and the breezes
which play in courtyard and antechamber are oppressed
with other psi fumes than those of flower and fruit-blos-
som. Two of the chiwf medical officers—Drs. Menzies and
Barratt—now recovering slowly from fever, and some
cases of continued feebleness or relapse among officers in-
valided there, testify to the character of a spot which may
well serve for the residence of a tSultan during a few
weeks of summer, without being any the more for that
a fitting place for an hospital. Provided with common
habits of observation and common sense or smell, no
person can traverse either the ground of its vicinity or
the interior of the buildings without recognising on
every side the invisible ministers of Azrael. The Sani-
tary Commission has already produced the number of
sick under charge there, which dues not exceed 250,
and drainage works are now going on to di-charge some
of its moisture from the swampy ground. It i-, how-
ever, barely probable that, even with these precautions,
anything like average healthiness can be procured ; and
the table of mortality, will, I doubt not, before long
intimate more plainly than expressed warning the neces-
sity for its evacuation. The Kiosk possesses by its
structure and conveniences, some a tracti ins as a sani-
tarium for invalided officers, of whom they are now
about 15 residieg in it ; and it has been adapted :n many
ways to their comfort and habits of life. Still it
shares the native faults of the /oca:e and of all Turkish
buildings. It offers, by its situation, no stimulus which
can remove the depression of sickness or stir the languor
of convalescence, and though, perhaps, more likely
to be retained than any other portion of the settle-
ment, is open to grave uncertainties of the result.
A similar process of cleaning has been more
thoroughly effected in the floating hospitals. The Bom-
bay is empty. The Turkish hulk, a much larger vessel,
and which did not suffer so severely from the ravages of
fever, has still about 80 convalescents on board, but
these are gradually to be removed. and not more than
one-fourth of the number are seriously disabled. The
general condition of the hospital continues to improve,
the average deaths of the last three days having been
but six, a proportion to the total number of one-fifth per
cent. per diem. it is well that the safest and most na-
tural test, that, namely, of declining mortality, should
be applied to these establishments before any great
accumulation of wounded men is thrown suddenly upon
them, an event which may now happen a y day, if
either rumour speak true, or the probabilities of the
campaign be urged as a valid ground of opinion.
The hospital staff has received, aid is still receiving,
reinforcements. Miss Nightingale has had her corps
strengthened by the arrival of eight nurses, and 12
more are expected. To Kululee 30 nurses are coining
out, in addition to the 13 at present on duty, of whom
10 are Catholic sisters. Five civilian surgeons have
also been paced at the disposal of the authorities for
the Bosphorus hospitals. As to the clergy, there are
now 10 chaplains in the Crimea, four in the Scutari
hospitals, and one at Kululee, since Mr. Hulcatt's de-
parture to Malta for change of air. The arrival of Mr.
Escrest at Smyrna sets the former chaplain there at
liberty for service elsewhere. Three others are supposed
to be now en route from England. Upon their coming
there will still be a deficiency of three upon the calcu-
lated strength of 24. There are three Presbyterian mi-
nisters here ; but one, Mr. Drennan, is for the present
invalided. A Catholic chaplain has arrived, and has
gone on to the Crimea, where Mr. O'Dwyer was at the
time of my departure left single-handed, his only re-
maining colleague, Mr. Butt, being incapable of doing
duty. There are four priests in the Bosphorus hospi-
tals, one at Kululee, one at the General Hospital, and
two at the Barrack. There is one also stationed at
Abydos. The total, inclusive of one invalid, is therefore
eight, the contingent being fixed at 10. To the list of
disabled officers given in the preceding letter I have
now to add, with regret, the name of Dr. M`Grigor,
who is laid up with intermittent fever. Mr. Ludlow,
who was mentioned at that data as seriously ii, died on
the night of the 3d. He received during the whole
course of his illness the constant attendance of Miss
Nightingale. The hospital returns of this morning con-
tain the announcement of another death among the as-
sistant-surgeons, and also of one among the nurses. If
the merits of a class are to bej udgeel in any degree by the
amount of risks to which their lives are exposed, the fact
that 39 medical officers; including four staff-surgeons,
have already perished, should not by without its due
weight and consideration. It will be observed that
of this number the largest proportion is among those
who from their age have possessed less power of resist-
ance, and who have been more familiar with the details
of disease, and more endangered by daily contact with
the persons of the sick.
The following is a nominal return of deaths in the hos-
pitals at Scutari, &co as reported at the Commandant's.
office by the medical authorities, from the 2d to the 4th
of April :-
1
Private Daniel Pinches, Scots Fusil. Gds., diarr.,,April 2
Private A. Murphy, 63d Regt., febris, April 1
Private John Barrard, 21st Regt., dysentery, April 1
Private William Wesley, 19th Regt., febris, April 2
Sergeant Win. Ruddick, 89th Regt , diarr., April 1
Private Timothy Flagherty, 88th Regt., febris, April 1.
Private John Mulpeters, 19th Regt., diar., April 1.
Private William Bushwell, 38th Regt., do., April 1.
s,
Gres.49th GRdeg„t dysentery,iar.
Apri April.l
2.
s Fus. Gds., do., April 2.
scorbi us, A April 2.
t f b PA
•1 9
Privatef rrii vv aa ttee
Reat. bronchitis, April 3.
RobertCS-hmarli.elisJßuel:nDlPeliihnimis'e,Y' Scot
Private Daniel Bryan, ee
4erlth Reg ~ e ris, pri
spPerrrii
gvv
ena
tT,TrhehodonsentrlacskAilspoi edt,dgs:ooB
lite hi,
Ed 9;
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tribauri
:AAprpr
Corporal Bernard Lunne
Dr.-Major Fred. PadfieldY,'44t-t4ilLeAgetrgett.;v'
Private Wm. Beckwith, 44th Regt., diarr.,
A ril 1
Private Charles O'BrinAeT, 6K3duLRucLgEtE.,. febris, AApprriii pill.l
Private Edward Pennell, 7th Bet., dysentery, p
PrivatePP er vv att ee io'ctuvhniadrdMDeal,er Murray,hoarnotn 12ctliteshtr
ER:euggattr..a,
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