be out of the question to maintain such a permanent establishment of the R. A. M. C. as would be sufficient to meet all the duties which now lie before it. Like those of other nations, our military medical department has always had to contemplate the necessity, when an emergency arose, of appealing to the medical profession at large for assistance. The appeal has now been made by the Director-General, and most nobly and enthusiastically has it been answered. Thousands of the most highlyqualified men in our islands, representing all the great medical schools, have applied for employment, and the only difficulty has been to choose from the multitude the few hundreds that have been required. It is understood that these civilian surgeons are to receive the same pay and allowances during their term of employment as the regular officers; but no such temptations, nor indeed any temptations whatever, were necessary to secure their services. These gallant volunteers were only anxious to practice their noble profession in their country's service, not in mere commonplace hospital work, but in the most advanced posts, where exposure and hardship are greatest, and the enemy's bullets are flying most thickly. So far it has not been considered desirable to gratify their very laudable ambition to the utmost, as their lack of military experience and knowledge of military routine might present some difficulties, but they are finding ample employment in the base and stationary hospitals. It is by no means improbable, however, that the time may come when some of them may find themselves in situations which will very fully try their nerve and hardihood.

In addition to the regular working staff of our medical organization for war, our soldiers are also having with them some of the greatest British surgeons as consultants. The names of VOL. VII. 362

LIVING AGE.

Sir W. MacCormac, Mr. Treves, Sir W. Stokes, and others who have gone to South Africa, are those of princes in their great calling, and England owes a deep debt of gratitude to such men, who, forsaking their great positions and largely-paid practices at home, have gone forth on their errand of mercy. It is no confession of weakness on the part of the R. A. M. C. that it should welcome the advice in grave cases of scientists whose reputation is pre-eminent. The credit of its officers, gained brilliantly in peace and war, puts it beyond any such suggestion; but there is no doubt that it is often more difficult to decide whether a serious operation is advisable than to perform the operation itself, and it must be of the greatest satisfaction to the patient, to the patient's friends at home, and to the surgeon, that the propriety of any course of action should be supported and fortified by an opinion of unquestionable weight and value. If they had gone from England for nothing else but to inspect and report upon the R. A. M. C. work in the field and in hospital, the presence of the consultants in Africa would have been an immense satisfaction to the English people. No men know better than they what surgery and nursing should be, and when, as independent critics, they can and do pour forth unstinted praise upon every detail that has come before them, we can bless the arrangement that has given us their opinion. In employing these distinguished men, England is only doing what all great Continental nations propose to do in the case of war; but even in our own history we have seen a leading London surgeon hurry to the scene of a great campaign:

The fact may not inappropriately be recalled that Sir Charles Bell acted as a volunteer consultant to the forces after Waterloo. In his "Letters," published by his widow, it is stated that

when, on June 22, 1815, the news of the great battle reached London, Bell exclaimed to his brother-in-law, Mr. John Shaw, afterwards surgeon to the Middlesex hospital: "Johnnie! How can we let this pass? Here is such an occasion of seeing gunshot wounds come to our very door. Let us go." They set off at once, the only passports they thought of being surgical instruments; these Shaw shook in the faces of the officers, who thereupon let thein pass without making any difficulty. On their arrival at Brussels they found things in some confusion. Bell writes on July 1: "It was thought we were prepared for a great battle, yet there we are, eleven days after it, only making arrangements for the reception of the wounded."

Sir Charles Bell appears to have given his great skill principally to the French wounded, though he was consulted by General Adam, Sir Edward Barnes, Sir Henry Hardinge, and other officers.

After all, surgery and medicine are not everything in the treatment of a case, but careful and tender nursing takes a very important part. The medical officer cannot always remain by one bedside, and if his directions are not minutely carried out during the long hours when he is employed elsewhere, his best skill will be but of partial avail. It does not appear to be usually known that the men of the R. A. M. C. are not only stretcher-bearers, but are also highly-skilled and experienced hospital attendants, and are divided, according to their capabilities, into various classes. The orderlies of the first class are thoroughly-trained "nurses," while the others are employed as compounders, cooks, etc. Probably nowhere is the responsibility of nursing more felt than it is by the orderlies in a military hospital. Quite irrespective of the sympathetic feeling which we believe that most Englishmen have towards helplessness and suffering, they

are very fully imbued with the military virtues of discipline and devotion to duty. We know well how in the combatant ranks good officers can by their leading incite their men to deeds of chivalry and heroism, and, in like manner, the unfailing, scientific coolness, resource, presence of mind, and entire forgetfulness of self shown by the officers of the R. A. M. C. are constantly emulated by the men who serve with them. There is no doubt that in the line nearest the enemy, where work must inevitably be, to some extent, rough and ready, when grave danger is hovering near, and a hospital must, as it were, "come into action" with the utmost rapidity, and not always under the most favorable surrounding circumstances, the men of the R. A. M. C. are the best possible nurses. It has been suggested that some lady nurses should be attached to the field hospitals; but the consensus of opinion among those who are responsible that the work is well done, and among the poor Tommies who form the cases, is that the ladies would be quite out of place so near the battlefield, and that it is much better to rely entirely on the men who have always proved themselves to be so good and efficient. It is obvious, too, that if a lady nurse falls sick it would be impossible in a field hospital to provide that she should have the care and privacy due to her sex.

But in the case of our sick and wounded soldiers there is still a very important place for lady nurses. Immediately after the first shock of a wound, the patient's thoughts are still full of the excitement of the fight, or else he is nearly unconscious of surrounding influences. So long as he is attended to, there is little room for the sway of the mind over the body; but when he finds himself in a stationary or base hospital, during the long-drawnout days while he is slowly progressing to convalescence, or when, perhaps, he

is fading out of life, the gentle touch of a woman's hand, and the soothing tone of a woman's voice, are to him of inestimable value. Good and attentive as male nurses may be, their care lacks something which is supplied by that of the "ministering angels." This has been recognized for some years, and a corps of ladies called the Army Nursing Service has been formed for hospital duty in England and the Colonies, India being provided for by the Indian Nursing Service, which is a separate body. The sisters of the Army Nursing Service all go through a course of instruction at Netley, and there become accustomed to military ways and military discipline. A large number of them are now in South Africa, and how admirably their work is done will be told by the invalids who are now returning to England. As the Army Nursing Service would be unable to meet all the calls upon it, it is supplemented by sisters from the Army Nursing Reserve, an organization managed by a committee of which Princess Christian is president, and into whose benevolent work she has thrown her whole energy. The followers in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale are now many. The good work that she initiated has now become a commonplace of warlike organization, the difficulties that she found in her path have passed away forever, and all the world recognizes the noble practicalness of her aims.

Some comment has been made on the omission of special sanitary officers from the staffs of our armies. The fact is, however, that such officers are now in no way needed. Every officer of the R. A. M. C. goes through a course at Netley on all matters connected with sanitation, and is perfectly competent to advise in every such detail. The medical officer attached to each unit is responsible to the principal medical officer of the division for the proper condition of his camp, and a most care

ful eye is kept upon the sources of water-supply, the food, and all matters that can possibly affect the well-being of the men. How thoroughly sanitation is attended to is shown by the excellent general health of all the troops, although typhoid fever is known to be very prevalent in South Africa during the autumn and summer. The only places where there have been any serious outbreaks are among the beseiged garrisons and one or two camps close to the enemy, and their conditions are, of course, beyond the control of any sanitary science, however perfect and however energetic in action.

A very ill-advised commander in the English army once said, not so very long ago, that the medical corps "were not soldiers, but only attendants upon soldiers." It may be, perhaps, difficult to define what special qualifications or employments make a man a soldier, but if entire self-abnegation in the cause of duty, if patient endurance of fatigue and hardship in the course of military operations, if the profoundest disregard of danger in the battlefield, if the fact of their officers and men being large sharers in the death and injury that smite the personnel of an army, are any of the conditions that mark a true soldier, the R. A. M. C. can say, "No men are more of soldiers than we." This must be iterated again and yet again; for, in the face of these very palpable facts, there can be no doubt that in certain military quarters, and those, so far, very influential quarters, there is still a deep-rooted feeling of animosity against the medical service. Or is it possible that the feeling is rather one of jealousy because that service has been so eminently equal to a great occasion, when the purely combatant administration has, to say the least, not been too successful? Specific army status has been granted to the medical department, but this has not apparent.

ly always carried with it the recognition that is due. For a salient example of what is meant it may be pointed out that the name of the principal medical officer of the last Soudan expedition was omitted from the otherwise comprehensive list of those to whom the thanks of Parliament were tendered. The record of special acts of gallantry performed by our officers and men in South Africa is somewhat slow in reaching us, and what has come has been wanting in fulness. Perhaps it is only the despatches of successful generals that can be expected to contain eulogies of subordinates, however well they may have served, however brilliant an example they may have given. But, though we have yet to learn officially the details of many deeds of heroism, the commanders of the most important forces hitherto employed have spoken generally in the most laudatory terms about the work done by the R. A. M. C. General Buller says:

I

One of the Natal papers is attacking the military hospitals, and, as some of the false and ridiculous statements may cause anxiety at home, I think it right to say that Mr. Treves assures me that there is no possible ground for complaint, and that I may rest satisfied that all the medical arrangements are completely satisfactory to him. pressed him if he could suggest improvement, and he said he could not. I have given the matter every consideration, and can only express my admiration of the arrangements made by Colonel Gallwey and the Royal Army Medical Corps, and Mr. Treves assures me that he entirely agrees with me.

Lord Methuen thus concludes his despatch after the Modder River fight:

Again I call attention to the splendid hospital arrangements, for at 4.45 p. m. on the day after the fight all my wounded were on the way to Capetown. I am glad to have been slightly

wounded, because in no other way could I have learnt the care taken of the wounded; and there was nothing officer or private soldier required that was not provided at once, and the medical officers never tired in their endeavor to alleviate suffering.

The despatch also contains the following mention: "He (Colonel Paget) draws attention to Captain Moores, R. A. M. C., who, although wounded in the hand, said nothing, but continued his duties."

From other sources we know that, while our soldiers have behaved, without exception, in accordance with the noblest traditions of the British race, when one of the few bright elements in the campaign's history is the knowledge that all ranks have quitted themselves like men, the R. A. M. C. has specially distinguished itself, and we cannot help feeling our blood stirred by tales of what it has done. Mr. Treves tells of poor Lieutenant Roberts's death:

Before he was brought in he had been lying for seven hours in the sun in a donga. Here he was attended by Major Babtie, R.AM.C., who rode into the donga through a hail of bullets, and whose horse was killed under him. Major Babtie kept by the wounded men in the donga until the battle was over, and as he alone had water in his water-bottle he doled out water to each man in a minim measure, one drachm to each. The courage and daring of Major Babtie on this occasion call for some recognition from the medical profession, if not from the military authorities.

Then the Morning Post's correspondent, writing of the battle of Magersfontein:

It is most necessary here to say a word in praise of the Army Medical Corps, who faced a hot fire all day long, going close up to the firing-line to

bring back our wounded. It seems almost incredible that during the day 500 wounded men should have been brought back by the Medical Corps, though to get them back stretcherbearers and searchers had to cross and recross a zone of fire nearly a mile wide.

Writing of the same battle, the Daily Telegraph correspondent says:

When the ambulance was brought up about noon, the Boers would not allow it to come nearer than 500 yards. Ensor, however, went on alone within 300 yards of the enemy and brought back a wounded man, although a heavy fire was directed on him by the Boers. Captain Probyn, attached to the Gordon and Highlanders, walked erect up down the firing-line attending to the wounded officers and men under a hail of bullets.

And so on and so on.

Several officers of the R. A. M. C. have met a soldier's death on the field. The first to give his life for his country was Major Gray, who fell while ministering to the wounded at Elandslaagte. Then Captain Hughes, one of the most brilliant young English scientists, died by Buller's side at Colenso. Even that unemotional commander telegraphed, "We had all learned to love him;" and it has been written of him in a great professional journal, "His untimely death is a loss not only to the Royal Army Medical Corps, but also to the profession at large as well as to medical science." And, alas! there are others.

A very spirited ditty has come before us. It was published in the Morning Post, and it is no discredit to it to say that it is evidently inspired by the study of Rudyard Kipling. Its last lines seem to sum up very perfectly all that we think about the R. A. M. C. in the field:

But, here's to the man of the R.A.M.C. Buzzing about on the field like a bee, Tending the wounded where lead's flying hot,

Biting his lip when he gets hisself shot; Brave as the best of us, hurt and not tell,

Doctor he may be-he's soldier as well.

And besides their chivalrous courage and readiness in the actual battlefield, the R. A. M. C. have given examples of the most extraordinary endurance in carrying out their duties after the actual fighting is over,-an endurance so much beyond the ordinary capacity of human powers that it can only be accounted for by believing that they are stimulated by the noblest professional zeal and the most eager and high-minded philanthropy. After the battle of Magersfontein the medical men worked incessantly for thirty-six hours. After the battle of Colenso Mr. Treves writes:

Some 800 wounded were passed through the field hospitals and dealt with by sixteen surgeons. Those who harshly criticise the Medical Depart

ment should have seen the work done on the memorable Friday on the Naval Hill before Colenso. No work could have been done better. The equipment was good, the arrangements elaborated, and the officers worked on hour after hour without rest or food under the most trying possible conditions. No greater strain could have fallen upon a department, and all concerned met the brunt of it valiantly and well. One could not be other than proud of one's profession.

And be it remembered that the men who did this great work-work which involved as much toil to the brain as it demanded the utmost skilfulness of hand-did not come to it fresh and unfatigued. Many of them had had a weary march, many of them had been present and employed during the long and bitter action. The temperature