The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-24 00:00:00

TEE I,IEDITIfer S}RVIOEr OF ~THE
FRENCH ARMY.

(From the Non iteur de l' Armee.)
Thanla to the admirable organisation of the medical
service in our corps of troops, in our ambulances and hos-
pitals, nu sooner does a man fall iu the ranks than he is
carried to the rear, where the regimental health-officer at-
tends to him first, with the help of a small portable medi-
cal bag carried by a soldier. If the wound is a severe one,
the man is either led or carried to the temporary post,
where the canteens of the regiment's own ambulance are
set tip, and, if it be necessary, to the ambulance of the bri-
gade. Nurse soldiers in sufficient numbers, with seats fas-
tened on the backs of mules, are always at hand to pick up
the wounded on the field of battle and take them to this
ambulance, under the immediate direction of the adminis-
trative officers appointed for the purpose, and under the
ustive 'control of the military Bth-intendant, this service
forming- an important part of his duties. '

The English surgeons do not appear as yet to have suffi-
eientlY appreCiated the advantages obtained by this system
of lifting up and removing the wounded. They have pro•
ferred the mule seat, the utility of which has been found
so great in Africa, and which is now rendering such good
service. in the East, a kind of flying hospital on wheels,
that was puffed off immensely seine months ago by the
London jonreals. We have seen a coloured print of this
vehicle, aud.ure far from granting to it the merit generally
attributed to it.

The front part, separated from the rest, like the coupe or
chariot of our diligence, holds three sick people that are
able to sit up, bat their seats are placed lengthwise just as
they are in an omnibus. The coach part behind is made
for holding four sick or wounded patients, lying horizon-
tally oi•shelves that slide is and out like drawers, two be-
ing below and the other two above them, just like berths
in a steam-packet.

The mode of transport, very uncomfortable to the pa-
tients, is accompanied with a host of disagreeable!, espe-
cishy
fofithOie in the lower berths. The vehicle cannot,
besides; turn with the same ease as our mules. These
latter are evidently more advantageous on the field of
battle, as also in mountainous districts of difficult access.

When it is required in our armies-to remove patients,
to whom the recumbent positions is necessary, litters are
made use of, carried also by mules. Fur transferring the
sick or wounded from the temporary ambulance to the
-regular hospital, our military care, hung on Springs, are
more successfully used than the English vans, for in the
first, at least, the patients can breathe the fresh air and
'see the broad daylight.
We said just now that nurse soldiers pickup the wound-
ed on the held of battle, under the direction of the admi-
nistrative officers on the hospital staff, and wader the in-
spection of the military IMb-intendants. A few more spe-
cial details on this important subject will not be out of
place here.

In our army the military physicians have nothing what-
ever to do with the organisation and management either
of the ambulances and hospitals themselves, or of the dis-
pensaries attached to them. Engaged exclusively with
their noble prefe4sion, they prescribe with unbounded
powers. By their side the military apothecary is ready to
make up their prescriptions; the administrative officer
superintends the use made of the medicinal stores and the
application of the alimentary prescriptions, for all which
he is responsible.
The male nurses, selected from the volunteers of the dif-

feront corps, or from among the young annual recruits, are
trained beforehand in. the.military infirmaries, and taught
all the duties of the sacred mission confided to them. They
are all sensible, and kind-hearted men, strong, and of a
good constitution. They are really picked soldiers.
At the head of this organised system stands the officer
of the military commissariat, who, by virtue of the orders
transmitted to him, sends of the staff aid dispensary
the ambulance, and orders the removal of the wounded to
the temporary or permanent hospitals, which the military
administration has established, and which are also under
his authority. •
In this organisation, as complete as possible, each per-
son has his part in the action, in the authority and in the
responsibility ; the man of science is absolute lord at the
bedside of the patient, which is as it ought to be. The
apothecary and, the administrative officer, both of them
obliged of coutse to cJnforin to the prescriptions of the
physician within the limits traced out by the regulations,
are nevertheless not in the leaA subordinate to his autho•

rity, for both of them are accountable and respoasible. If
diiticulties or disputes arise, the military sub-intendant
becoines then the referee, and his decision has to be abided
by on the part of each.
Down to the present time the service has been well car-
ried on in France with this regulation of each pereou's
attributes, nor have any objections been made to the sys-
tem, miles; by a few wcose susceptibilities have been
touched. Let the results be compared in the one army and
in the other, and then let a judgment l,e delivered on the
respective merits of the two systems followed.
NVe will courplete these explanations, by giving a suc-
cinct account of the resources placed at the disposal of our
military administration, in the army of the East, in carry-
ing on the hospital service.
Each corps of troops is prcvided with a chief physician
and a sub-physician. These have, wherever they please,
for each battalion or for two squadrons, an ambulance bag
that can be carried wherever it is wanted, and a couple of

canteens, filled with medicines, linen and lint, and with
everything in short required for the medical treatment of
200 wounded men. If the corps st,ys some time in a camp
or place, a regimental infirmary is formed, and the reserve
stoics supply them everything required for its organisation.
Each division or each detacned brigade is supplied, more-
over, and concurrently with the medicaments above men-
tioned, -with a regular ambulance, the supplies for which,
belonging as they do to two different sources, have been
combined on the spot by the competent authority, so as to
meet the wants, as they turn up during the march, of tho
men in that envision or detached brigade.
this of these sources is the organisation of the ambulances
with the African army, where the medical stores are con-
veyed ea the backs of mules; the other source is the orga-
nisation of the flying hospitals or the ambulances moved by
wheels. In combining these two means the latter serves as
a reserve to the former, this being more especially used for
the service of the vanguard or of the front line. Thej tine-
tiou of the vehicle forms a kind of temporary hospital.
The flying ambulance of Africa, for a division of 10,000
men, consists of the following stall; with the following
stock of medicameuts

.STA.FI OF THE DIFFERENT gRADES.

16 physicians and apothecaries.
7 administrative officers.
104 male nurses.

STOOL

8 canteens or medical chests, each containing 338 dress.
ings. _ _

4 medicine chests.
4 canteens of administration for the stock.
18 canteens of reserve for the health service.
22 do. for the administrative service.
26 do. for the private use of the medical staff officers.
10 tons of vegetable infusions.
20 hand harrows.
200 counterpanes (or quilts).
50 tilts and awnings for the sick, &o.
30 tents.
24 litters.

250 pair of mule-seats.
The total of the resources amounts to 6,50) dressings,
distributed among the various canteens in use or in reserve.
The conveying of all this stock is performed by 364 pack
mules. •

The stock of a regular ambulance, for a division of 10,000
.
men, is composed of five vans, each carrying 2,t;00 dressings,
add all that would set up the dispensary of a swan. hospi-
tal. The ambulance of a cavalry division consists of three
vans *sly. Each van is drawn by four horses.
The military administration of the Eastern army has at
its disposal 25 ambulance vans fitted up in the way de-
scribed. The entire medical and hospital staff, now with
the French army in the East, is composed
276 physicians or apothecaries.
54 officers of adnrnistration.
50 hospital sisters (female nurses).
7al male nurses.

As for the dispensary stack, without including what is
required for present use it the ambulances, there has been
already sant front France for the organisation of permanent
hospitals at different points, v. complete lit out of medica-
ments for 7,70 patients, net including also the require-
ments in the hospital of the Piraeus, that make up 500
beds. At this moment a complete stock is going out for
the organisation of two new hospitals, each to contain 500
beds. The number of 500 has been fixed upon simply for
representing the unity of each hospital. Lastly, large re-
serves have been collected of various articles, especially of
linen and lint. Taking all these amounts sent out toge-
ther, we may consider the supply to be equal to the wants
some ships leavecases,
and
yet, not a day passes still, but what
France with additional stock for the ma-
gazines of reserve established at Constantinople, and with
fresh articles that may be required for the treatment of
the sick. •
The principle has been not to send more than 1,001 iron
bedsteads, sittce the temporary hospitals are fitted up with
straw mattresses, sheets, counterpanes, &O. But in conse-
qnence of the additions subsequently sent out the iron
000. The hospitals in the East will very soon
bedsteads now amount to 4,000, to be shortly increased to,e . 008 or
off as those of Europe in every respect.
branch has been attended to in an equal
bBoel 110,
degTitee,dfior not only nly is every kind of medicine supplied, but
cyan the fittings up are on the spot. A. central dispensary
established at Constantinople possesses all those articles it
reqUires for supplying the partial dispensaries.
The arrangements that. have been made for many years
past 13 the military administration for regulating the man-
ner of packing the-different parts of the hospital stock are
admirably adapted for deitertuining beforehand the nature
and importance of the means required for conveying each
batch. The dimensions, Coutents, and weight of the chests
are I i xed, and hence the great ease experienced its forward-
ing this kind of stock. Thus for a temporary hospital of
sao patients the proportions are—Administrative stock
(bedding, &c.) 9 cubic metres ; weight 1,800 kilogrammes;
pharmaceutic materials 9 cubic metres; weight 1,800 kilo-
grammes.

E tell hospital for 500 patients has a supply of needica-
meats for three months.
As'for the articles of diet, which the mess•officors of the
hospitals procure in a great measure on the spot, the cen-
tral administration attends more to the means of supplying
the patients with such dietary articles as they peculiarly
require, and have Sent out a large supply of ♦egetables,
preserved on the Chollet principle, to the reserve magazine
at Constantinople.

e hear that an agreement, to continue for five years,
aas been entered into between the Scottish Central and
the Edinburgh and Glagow Railway Companies. Mr.
J. A. Jamieson, secretary to the Central, is to act in the
same capacity for both companies, and Mr. Latham, of
the Edinburgo and Glasgow, will discharge the duties of
manager under the new arrangement.—Perthskire
Advertiser.

[AnyzarrsEmENT.]—Supplement, gratis, with the
Weekly Dispatch of Sunday, October 29th. The TVeekly
Dispatch. of Sunday, the 29th of October, will be accom-
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event of interest connected with the operations of the
A. flied Armies in the Crimea up to the moment of pub-
lication. This Supplement, like the one published on
the 15th instant, and which was so highly appreciated
by the public, will he entirely devoted to the intelligence
of the War. Purchasers will thus possess a detailed nar-
rative of all the great events of this important under-
taking, which may be preserved separately from the
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pearance, can be bound with the volume of the year. It
is the intention of the Proprietors to issue at intervals
other Supplements, carrying on the History of the War,
and giving the fullest and most authentic information on
the subject. The Dispatch will also contain a full account
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panions. 01 de 's shou!d be immediately given to the
News-agents in town and country, or at the Dispatch,
Office, 139, Fleet-street.

TED MU.

DER, AT THE WEST-END.

EXTRAORDINARY AND MYSTERIOUS
AFFAIR.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Charles Bedford, the West-
minster coroner, held a lengthened investigation in the
board-room of the workhouse of St. Martin-in-the-Fields,
relative to the death of a male infant, whose body was
found in the Green Park on Thursday morning last.
The case excited great interest, and the court was
crowded during the inquiry, which was of the most
mysterious and extraordinary nature.
James Eldridge, a gLezier, deposed, that as he was
proceeding through the Green Park on Thursday morn-
ing last, at about six o'clock, he saw a bundle lying
Tinder one.of the benches. On examining it he found it
to contain the body of a fine male child, wrapped in a
part of a sheet, and covered with a handkerchief. He
delivered the body to a police constable.
Richard Tanner, police-constable 191 C. proved re-
ceiving the body and conveying it to the workhouse.
Mr. J. T. Beinbridge, surgeon to the workhouse, de-
posed that he saw the body on the morning it was
brought in. It was an extremely fine child. There
were no external marks of violence. He made a post
tnortent examination of the body Oh Friday. He opened
the chest and found the lungs to be fully expanded,
filling the whole of the chest. He felt assured the child
must have lived anti breathed, and it must have been
killed either during or subsequent to the birth.
By the Coroner—There was no appearance that would
justify him in stating the exact czuse of death, or whether
the respiration took place before or after the birth. It
was very probable that the child died from suffocation
from the gorged state of the brain. That might have
been done by covering the face with a cloth.
Mrs. Sarah Butler, of 49, Cla.verton-terrace' Pimlico.
deposed that she kept an establishment for ladies and
gentlemen to reside with her. Witness had a ser'rant in
her employ named Sarah Hart. [lt was afterwards
proved that her proper name was Smith.] She did not
know that that servant was the mother of the dead child.
She left witness's house on Thursday night last. Wit-
ness taxed her with being in the family way, but she
denied the fact until the latter end of September, when
she said she. was going to live with her sister at Ftnchley
during her confinement. She saw her several times
during that evening, when she appeared very well. At
about half-past 12 she knocked at witness's room door,
and said she wanted to speak with her. Wituese went
to her room, and she.then said she had fallen do wa the
scullery steps, and was in pain, and she wanted to go
to her sister, who was in service near the Haymarket.
Witness advised her to stop the night and she should
have some attendance, but she still persisted upon going.
Witness then said that the servant should have it cab,
and procured one accordingly, into which the woman
Igot. _ _ _

By the Coroner—Witness went with the servant. Lae
servant had a bundle with her, but witness thotoght it
was too small to contain the child.
Witness resumed—Smith told the cabman to kirock at
a Louse i■ Panton•street, and ask for " Mary." He did
so, and a lady answered him, saying, that Mary w:as in
bed and could not be disturbed. The cabman wal; then
told to go to a house round the corner, which his did,
and the servant got out and went into the Mouse, and
witness went back hems.

By the Coroiaer=-When she got home she saw neithing
that would lead her to suppose that a child had been, born.
Was quite sure that no child was ever born in her estab-
lishment. After Smith said she had fallen down siiie did
not say she was in labour.
Charles King, 35 C, deposed, that on Friday morning,
between nine and ten o'clock, he went to No. 1, H:nnt's-
court, Castle-street, Long-acre, and there found the hornets
Smith in bed with her sister. Ile cautioned her as to what
she said, and she burst into tears, saying, she would tell
the truth. Sho then told him that about two o'cloi.3l( on
the previoas Saturday morning she was delivered of a
male child at Airs. Butler's house ; that Mrs. ;utter
msde her get up, provided her with two sheets to •wrap
the child up in, got her a cab, and drove her off t a her
sister's. She also said that Mrs. Butler went with her
to 9, Panton-street, where she (Smith) was refused ad-
mission, and from there she went to a house in Green-
street. Witness went to Mrs. Butler, who said shit had
missed two sheets. Smith further stated that there was
mess in the room where the child was born, VI • Lich
Mrs. Butler said sloe would clear up. He esker! 'what
she had done with the child, and she said she had
wrapped it up and put it tinder one of the Beata nil the
Green-park, and concluded by stating that Mrs. Butler's
daughter was present during the birth of the child,
The Coroner asked Mrs. Butler if she wished to make
any alteration in her statement after the testimony of the
constable ?
Mrs. Butler denied the truth of the statement made
by Smith to the constable. She then made the follow-
ing extraordieary statement :—" I wish to state that I
have been much harassed by a third party, a re spectably-
dressed man, wbo called upon me and said that I had
been an accessory to a crime, and that if I paid him 201.
ho would make the matter a secret, and wout4 send the
girl to Guernsey,' A. watch was on the ma ritel-piece,
and he took out his own and said—" The magi:grates are
sitting at one o'clock ; -you have not a moment to lose ;
you had better give me the 20/. and I will get the girl
away. He also said that if the jury found in• guilty,
which they would do, I should have two years' impri-
sonment.. He stopped'spore than an hour, and said if I
had not the 201. in the house I could make it. He went

away, and came again next morning in a cab. I asked
if he was an official, and he replied in the 11 sgative.
He said a child had been found in the Green-park, which
child had come from my house, and if I gave him 201.
he would evade justic'e, and get the clear off. Of course
I did not give him the 201."

The Cox7onor expressed his stlrprise that xis. Butler
had not given notice to the police, and cause the fellow
to be apprehended.
The jury, after a short consultation, returned as their
verdict, " That the deceased child was born alive, and
died from suffocation ; but there is no evidence to satisfy
the jury by whom or how the child was suffocated:'

THE LATE CHARGE OF RAPE AT THE
HON. A.ND REV. A. SUGDEbrog.

Monday.—The magistrates (Mr. J. R.
Dunn and Mr. F. Thomas), at the petty sessions held
here, were occupied for some time in hearing a charge
against George Huggett, of Stunt's-green, for halving, on
the 14th of July last, given a false character 0:17 George
Elphick to the Hon. and Rev. A. Sugden.
Mr. Sadler appeared for the prosecution.
It will be recollected that George Elphick, who was a
groom
in the employ of the Hon. and Rev. A. Sugden,
George Elton (the brother-in-law of the rev. gee tleman),
and another party, were committed for trial by' the ma-
gistrates at Dorking for having committed a ripe upon
the person of a young girl, a housemaid at the Rectory
House, Newdigate.
_ _

The Hon Rev. A. Sudden, on being sworn, stated
that he resides at Newdigate, Surrey, and that he received
the character produced in court by pest, in consequence
of which he had engaged George Elphick in his service as
groom. Within two months after Geo. Elphick ad been
in his employment, he (Elphick) had been committed by
the Dorking bench of magistrates, along with other
parties, to take their trial at the next Surrey Assizes,
upon a serious charge. Witness produced a letter,
which he stated to be in George Elphick's handwriting,
and found it in his room after his arrest, addre,,sed to the
ps:soner, to the effect that they must try and make up
another character.

The prisoner pleaded guilty, and stated that he was
sorry for what he had done, but he did it out of kindness
to George Ephick, who was his cousin.
The magistrates stated it was a most serious •ffence.
No person could be oafs in taking servants if such
practices as these were • allowed to go unpunished •
and they should, therefore, fine the defendant 20/. andlos. costs, awl, in default, to be committed to the House
of Correction for three calendar, months.