The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-06-09

spring, and, owing to the putrescent
vegetation and the scarcity of pure
water, are a peculiar midas for cholera
and intestinal diseases. In the campaign
of 1923 the Russians are believed to have
lost $4,000 men between the Pruth and
the Balkans, of whom much the larger
proportion persisted from "plague"-
which appears to have been malignant
form of typhus, cholera, and typhoid or
malarial fevers. In 1929 they lost co.
600 men, mainly from disease, and out of
the whole army of 100000 men the re-
turns showed more than 200, 900 cases in
hospital, or an average of two hospital
treatments for each soldier during the
year. When the Russian General took
Adrianople, he had a mere skeleton of an
army, and after the peace of Adrianople
was made he had but 10000 to $4,000
men to lead back over the Danube, so re-
duced had his forces been by sickness.
In fact, fever and cholera had already de-
feated him before the peace, and had the
Sultan but known the real condition of
his army the issue of the war would
have been utterly different The great
deficiencies of the Muscovite service are
the commissariat and medical staff, and
never were the results of these deficien
cies so painfully shown as in the war of
1889.
In 1S54-5 the Russians suffered, but,
owing to their more limited operations
on the Danube, not to the same extent
as in the former campaign. 1t was in
these years that the allies felt the terri
BILE climate of the plains of the Danube
and the Dobrudscha. The British and
| French camps near Varna became abodes
of pestilence. In the French movement
to the DobrudsCha in pursuit of the Rus
slams, who had abandoned the siege of
Silistria, the march became a track of
death. Cholera destroyed force before
it reached the enemy; and the French
had not made many marches before they
found that it was all the living could do
to take care of the dying and dead, The
pursuit soon turned into retreat before
the CHASTITY enemies of pestilence and
fever. The especial causes were said to
be the bad water, the wells poisoned
by carcasses thrown in by the Russians,
the burning heat of the sun and cold
nights, and the miasma from the lately
submerged ground. In fact, if the genius
of the allied leaders had not transferred
the to the comparatively healthy pen
insula of the Crimea, the allied eXpedi-
ton to sustain the Ottoman Empire would
have ended in disaster and disgrace.
One of the principal lessons taught by
modern military science is that sanitary
skill is as important for military success
as strategical. Our war with the seced-
ing States was finally won, not only by
superior numbers and strategy, but by
greater sanitary skill. 1t would be diff
cult to number the thousands of able
bodied men saved to the Union army by
the operations alone of our sanitary au-
thorities. The care taught by them in
selecting camps, the medicine and nour-
ishing food furnished, the prophylactics
given, the efforts made to prevent the
spread of gangrene or local pestilence
the intelligence employed in preventing
disease and in treating wounds and
fevers-it was all this which preserved
so large ratio of our soldiers and con-
stantly furnished renewed men to the
main armies. Our troops were serving
for years, in the Gulf States and in Vir-
ginia, in quite as Presidential and slckly
regions as is the Dobrudscha, or the
plain of Bulgaria. But science and in
telligence saved our men. 1t is the want
of these modern appliances and modern
skill which has so often ruined the Rus
sian army. The lower Danube has too
frequently been pest-house for their
armies. When the MONDAY heats be-
come intense and the nights begin to be
chilly, we shall hear again of the painful
histories of plague and cholera among
their ignorant and careless soldery and
perhaps hear again of a Russian army
crippled by these invisible enemies. The
Turks seem to suffer less from these
diseases. Not from their sanitary APP
pliances, for they have none; but the
race is accustomed to warmer climate
than their northern enemy, and their re-
ligion teaches rigidly one of the first
means of preserving heaith-cleanliness
while their loose costume is more
suited to the extremes of the climate
near the mouths of the Danube. The
great defect of Russian administration
its stupid routine, follows all military
operations of the Cars Government, and
we shall see abundant illustrations of its
influence in this campaign against the
Turks.-N. Y Times.