Star.
London, England, 1808-03-30 00:00:00

and two Assistants attached to each regiment
reign service, it would considerably ease the General
Hospital department; from which we infer, that a
much smaller Hospital Staff Establishment than has
been recommended for our expeditions abroad, would
be sufficient, in his opinion, if proper care was used
in appointing well-qualified persons to regimental
situations.
The circumstances which we are about to state,
and which happened during the campaign in Egypt
in the last war, will clearly shew, we think, that un-
der an experienced and judicious management of the
medical department of an army, the General Hos-
pital Establishment (including the large quantities of
wine, medicines, and Purveyor's stores belonging to
it, which usually accompany our foreign expedi-
tions) is superabundant, if not altogether an unne-
cessary encumbrance. The army which was sent
from Bombay to Egypt in 1801, under the command
of Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird, although
consisting, with followers, of eight thousand men,
had, with the exception of Doctor M'Grigor, who
acted as the head of the Medical Staff, and of .a
Storekeeper who was appointed after the landing in
Egypt, only the usual Regimental Medical Officers;
and these carried their medicines with them. Ac-
cording to the practice, however, observed with fo-
reign expeditions going immediately from England,
. a provision of a ctlplete Medical Establishment,
consisting of between twenty and thirty s, with
a very large supply' of medicines ancre persons,
;stores, including much wine, had been made for this
army, and was sent to Egypt by the way of the Cape
of Good Hope. This establishment joined the Indian
Army about a month after its landing on the coast
of the Red Sea, and, as of course, took the charge
of the sick from Doctor MeGrigor and the Regimen-
tal Medical Officers. But Sir David Baird having
refused, on the part of the East India Company, to
defray so large an expence, the whole of this esta-
blishment, with the exception of a few Hospital
Mates, were ordered to the English Army, at that
time in Egypt ; and Doctor M' rigor and the Regi-
mental Surgeons resumed the charge of the depart-
ment, and of their own sick. To this it appears they
were fully competent ; for the only addition which
was subsequently made to this establishment was an-
other Storekeeper, and the employing one of the As-
sistant Surgeons as the responsible person to whom
money was to be issued for the contingencies of the
department. The same simplicity, and the same
laudable economy are observed in what respects the
medical disbursements of this army. The accounts,
after being examined by Doctor M‘Grigor, received
his signature of approbation • and, when countersigned
with the approbation of the Commander in Chief,
were submitted to the audit of two persons attached
to that army, for the special purpose of examining all
the accounts belonging to it, and their decision was
final. The success of this system of management
certainly justifies Doctor M4Grigor in his opinion,
that, with the addition of a few Staff Surgeons and
Hospital Mates, as a provision for an extraordinary
number of wounded men, the same system might be
beneficially adopted on all our foreign expeditions.—
And this opinion is confirmed by what we learn from
Doctor Yates, of the practice adopted in the India
Company's army : for even. when in the field, the
only additio nto the Regimental Establishment is,
one Staff Surgeon to superintend the whole Medical
Department, and a Medical Gentleman to take care
of the hospital stores ; with, occasionally, three or
four Assistant Surgeons, who are at the disposal of
the Chief of the Staff.

If, from what has been stated, the propriety of the
General Hospital System, as it has been adopted on,
our foreign expeditions since the establishment of the
Army Medical Board, shall be deemed questionable,
the extensive adoption of the same system at home
will be found probably to be open to much stronger
objections. On active service, a distinct Medical
Establishment, which might relieve, in a great de-
gree, the Regimental Surgeons from all duties except
in the field, and whose expenditure was under a sepa-
rate controul, appears to carry a great convenience
with it ; but the reasons which might be urged in
favour of such a measure on service, do not apply to
our forces at home. Hospitals, to which the sick of
regiments absent on service may be generally sent,
must be undoubtedly useful ; but our objection is to
the number which have been established, and to the
magnitude of the establishments attached to them; and
to the principle on which they have been conducted.
The return in the Appendix shews, that five Gene-
nefal Hospitals were established in 1793 • and that.
three were added in 1799, during the expedition to
Holland ; but that these last were discontinued in
the next year. Four others are stated to have been
established in 1803, by a War Office Order. The
establishments of these last, it appears, were continued
with the exception of some of the servants, for two or
three years, although the hospitals werenever in use..
At present, all the General Hospitals are disconti
nued, with the exception of the York Hospital at
Chelsea, and the depot hospital in the Isle of Wight.
In the same return. it will be seen, that the estabrisfi-
ments in all of them were nearly the same in descrip-
tion, although varying in the expence, on account of
the difference in the rank of the medical persons em-
ployed, and the consequent different rates oftheir pay.
It Doctor Borland's opinion, that the General
Hosplals in England appeared to have more medical•
officers and servants attached to them than were ne-
cessary. This also seems to be Colonel Burnet's opi.
nion, if we may judge from an estimate of the anneal
expence of an establidtment requisite for. a General
Military Hospital, which he hax communicated to us.
It will be proper tp (*serve in ihis placetthat, with
respect to three of those Hospitals establiihed in 1803,
which are stated in the return not to have been in,
use, it appears that his Royal Highness the com-
mander in Chief had direeitt on the-30th of Septem-'
ber in that year, that his order for providing them
should be revoked ; bnt, Mr. Keate having•itated'
that in easisequence of &ruler orders, he had appoin-
ted a rear Staff for each of the p4i..ate, and ordered
them, together with the requisite Yomplemewt of su•
perior servants, to their re-pective destinations, his

Highness's order to abolish these establishments, as
Mr. Keate's letter to his Royal Highness contains; Of
course, the reasons which operated on his mind. But
we cannot omit to observe, that the continuance of
these expensive establishments seems to have been
unknown at the Wir GlEce ; for we Sad, that on the
12th NOvember, 1804, Mr. Keate was questioned re-
lative to the appointment of principal medical offi-
cers to two of the places, " when it appears thattliere
were no General Hospitals at the posts at which they
were respectively stationed." Mr. Ream's answer,
on the 15th January, Ism, being made known to his
Royal Highness, he was pleased, on the 21st of the
same month, to recommend discontinuance of
those. Hospitals. fro be coniansed.)
•

Surgeons than Phy'si* osfd •ns, because the former could Highnels was pleased to order,-thit although
t
occasionally act eitho medically or surgically. • • e eral Hospitals were not actually occupied;
in respect of the check on the expenditure of inedi , the; the Staff that hid been appointed for diem
cines, and hospital stores on expeditions abroad, igiig under the existiag circumstances, be kept in
Mr. Young's opinion that the mode adopted wad.' -• • ss at those places:
be sufficient under an attentive euperintendance, * We have not enquired what were the existing
cir-
prevent waste and peculation. Mr. Young, however, climstances which could justify the fixing of complete
admits that if there were one well-qualified Surgeon establishments for General Hospitals at places where
and two Assistants attached to each regiment on fo- there were no patients, or into the motives which in-
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