Star.
London, England, 1808-04-19 00:00:00

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*MIN Alittat
OP TOIBIOIOI2IIWORPaiIk APOODM TO ENQUIRE AND
=Amos nsric; TAE. PUBLIC !IMMURE.

ADO DIiPARTMENT.

THE EXPENDITUItE.
(Cohered from the STAR shesterny.J.
The second! division of the subject, according to
the arrangement we have proposed to ourselves,
relates to the Expenditure of the Army Medical
Department.
Under this division will be considered the mode in
which articles, of all kinds, used in General and Re-
gimental Hospitals, have been provided and issue 4
and the expenditure of them controuled. The man,
nor too, in which the various Accounts of the De-
partment are examined, falls naturally under t
division of the subject. It will appear, hereafter,
that although all the several articles to which we al-
lude, have generally been provided and issued under
the same asehorities, yet, that in checking the charges
and in making the payments for them, the coarse ob-
, served has. been materially different. It will be most
convenient, therefore, we think, to arrange the con-
sideration of the expenditure under sate heads,
according to the nature of the articles provided, and
the mode of supplying thesfi
On this principle-we shall consider the expenditure
its Hospitals under the heads of Medicines, &mesh
Wines, Spirits, and Porter ' • an&Sulskistenee. as pro:
vided by Putveyors for the General aelkley the Sur-
geons for the Regimental Hospital- 141/
The bead of Medicines, as beingthillenstconsider-
able in thii expenditure, will be first noticed,
The Medicines, Medical Stores, and almost all the
Surgical Instruments, used by kis blajesty's army,
both at home and abroad; are supplied by Mr. Gar-
nier, by virtue of a patent from his Majesty's royal
predecessor, bearing date the 19th January, 1747.
e
This grants to George Garnier the younger, for life,
to commence from the determination of a former
grant to his father, dated '7th March, 1735, the office
or place of Apothecary-General to the forces raised,
or to be raised, " together with all rights, profits,
privileges, and advantages belonging to the same, or
as any other person hath heretofore held and enjoyed,
o • of right ought to have held and- enjoyed," pro-
vided
that he follows the orders which shall be given
to him, and that he furnishes good and wholesome
Medicaments.
No consideration is stated in the Patent as the foun-
dation for granting this valuable monopoly ; neither
by it is any salary annesr,ed to the office. Mr. Gamier,
however, who is a gentleman living in the country,
executing no part of the business himself, is considered'
as belonging to the Staff of the Army, and receives
at present ten shillings per diem, in addition to the
woks which are made on the immense quantity of
articles supplied by him.
His charges for these articles from Ist January,
• 1790, to 31st December, 1806, including seventy-
two thousand nine hundred and nineteen pounds four
shillings and eight pence, for surgical instruments,
have amounted to eight hundred and nine thousand•
and eighty-eight pounds seventeen shillings, or sixty-
seven thousand three hundred and forty pounds per
annum, on an average.
It was to be expected that the magnitude of such
an annual account would attract the notice of those
whose duty it was to controul the public expenditure;
and accordingly we find, that in 1797, some question
was made respecting the authority under which the
Apothecary-General supplied surgical materials and
surgical instruments to the army. Mr Gamier, in
his answer to the Secretary to the Treasury, relies, it
appears, en the words in his patent, which give him
•• all the rights, privileges, and profits belonging to
the office, or which have been enjoyed by, any other
person holding it ;" and he states, that his father be-
fore him had always supplied such articles. On a
consideration of this answer, Mr. Gamier was infor-
med, that the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's
Treasury approved of his continuing to supply sur-
gical instruments, and to charge them in his bill, as
had been practised. We shall have occasion to notice
Mr. Garnier's letter again in a subsequent part of this
report. As it is our opinion, for which the reasons
will be stated hereafter, that surgical instruments
• should not be furnished by the public in future, ex-
' cept to a very small extent, it is not very material to
consider whether the claim set up by the Apothecary
General be rightly founded : but if we are to judge
from the wards used in the patent, it should seem
that the patent intended to grant the supplying of
medicines only ; for the words of the condition are,
" provided he furnishes good and wholesome medi-
caments," words which cannot be properly applied to
instruments and surgical materials.
It is to be observed that, it is in consequence of the
extension of the General Hospital system only, and
during that inattention to economy which has accom-
panied it, that the quantity of this supply could have I
been considerable ; for the Regimental Surgeons
have always provided their own instruments, as until
1796, they also did their own medicines.
We have also received from his Majesty's Trea-
stny a paper, entitled " A Statement made by the
Comptrollers of Army Accounts of the nature of the
Account which the Apothecary-General has been
required to render of his receipts and expenditures."
In this it is stated, that the Apothecary General sup-
plies all medicines which are required by the Secretary
at War, and delivers them to be forwarded as he
directs. For these, it is said, the Apothecary General
makes up a yearly bill, stating the corps, hospitals,
Bt,-. for which the articles ordered were intended;
that the bill is certified by the Physician and Surgeon
General to the Army to be for articles of good quality,
and that the prices charged for them are fair and
reasonable, and is then presented to the Treasury for
payment : that the account is afterwards referred to
the Comptrollers, by whom the charges are recom-
puted • and the authorities
'for providing the articles,
and that they have been forwarded to their respective
destinations, being ascertained, the Comptrollers re-
port the result to the Treasury, when the balance due
is issued to the Apothecary General by warrant on
the Paymaster General of the Forces.
The responsibility of the Apothecary General is
stated to be allowed to cease on the delivery of the
articles to be forwarded as directed by the Secretary
•*t war. But the Comptrollers have constantly
tried, that proof ought to be produced -that the se•

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