СНАР.
VIII.

The infor mation, however incomplete, which

those stat

istics con

vey.

Still the very shortcomings and errors of this great official report tend to show, perhaps, that its statements were made, at the least, in good faith; and if, therefore, we venture to accept the guidance thus offered, we learn that the admissions of patients received into the ambulances of General Canrobert's army were as follows: In October 1854, 4747; in November, 8990; in December, 6432; in January 1855, 9259; in February, 8298; in March, 7737; and in April, 6323, making altogether 51,786.*

But in the hospitals and the regimental infirmaries ? + Will not this immense mass of statistics enable us to meet the inquiry which simply asks,

in figures which amount to no less than 452,223; but the compiler-
perhaps rightly-warns us that if we were to accept the official account
of 'primary admissions' (even putting it, as in the summary, at only
436,144) we should be counting tens of thousands of patients twice
over. Ibid. The error (if error there was) would seem to have been
caused by treating as 'entrés par billet' patients received from on
board ship who, though not transferred from any other hospital, strictly
so called, had come nevertheless from the ambulances. To people un-
versed in the medical statistics of armies, a statement showing' admis-
'sions' largely in excess of strength is apt to be startling, but may
nevertheless be accurate. Every ailment that puts a soldier' off duty'
for the moment shows itself in the form of a 'hospital admission.'
* 'Rapport,' pp. 58, 69, 72, 75, 82, 89, and 91, and this out of a
strength of

+ Besides the ambulances and the hospitals, there were 'regimental 'infirmaries,'-one for each regiment, with means of receiving fifty patients in each.

VIII.

How many men, whether placed in the ambulances CHA P. or the regimental infirmaries or in hospitals, were lying invalided at the close of each month? Well, no; for of patients received in the regimental infirmaries, these statistics say nothing; and respecting the men left in hospital at the close of October, November, and December, the official revealers are silent; but upon entering the new year, State authority allows to explorers a greater volume of light, and assures them that, at the close of January 1855, the French troops lying wounded or sick, in ambulance or hospital, were together 9263; at the close of February, 9645; at the close of March, 12,238; and at the close of April, 11,770.*

With these numbers before him, and also a set of figures denoting the strength of Canrobert's army at the end of each month, a statist will quickly educe what he calls the 'percentages,' but he still must remain quite unable to gauge the full effect of the winter on General Canrobert's troops, because kept (as will be presently seen) without any knowledge of the deaths that took place in the hospitals during the latter months of the year 1854; and besides, he will find himself baffled by the ceaseless stream of reinforcements flowing out at this time to the East from France and Algeria. For as often as any such troops came fresh and sound to the Bosphorus, their arrival altered the ratio between sickness and health, as shown by the usual returns, yet effected of course no change in the bodily state *Rapport,' pp. 75, 82, 89, 91, and Tables, ibid., from p. 535 to 554.

CHAP. of the men lying camped far away on the Cher

VIII.

sonese.*

Respecting the number of deaths that took place in hospital during the period selected for scrutiny, enquiry is baffled in part by the want of any monthly returns from the hospitals for the year 1854; and all we officially learn is the fact that in those seven months which extended from the 1st October to the end of April, there died in the ambulances alone 4901 men, whilst the deaths occurring in the hospitals during only the four last of these seven months were 6557-thus bringing such of the deaths as have not been kept out of sight by the want of monthly returns to the number of 11,458.

Although left undistinguished by reference to the months in which they took place, the deaths occurring in hospital during the year 1854 were not so wholly forgotten as to be prevented from swelling the more general returns of mortality; and perhaps it may hardly be wrong to follow them into the summary where the statist has merged them with many thousands of others. The summary states that the land-service troops sent out by France to the East, from the beginning of the war to its end, were 309,268, and that the losses sustained by the French in men who were either killed, or who died from sickness or wounds or else disappeared, were 95,615.+

* See note upon this subject in the Appendix.

Rapport,' p. 579. The number (inconsistently with the heading of the return) includes 308 marins,' and 846 deaths, occurring either on board ship or in naval hospitals.

VIII.

Maladies

ships en

by the

soldiers.

bite.

Of the myriads of invalided soldiery consigned CHAP. to the French ambulances or hospitals, very many were stricken with maladies which recorded, if so recording one may speak, the hardships under which they the hardhad suffered; and the numbers of men not only dured seized, but too often maimed, nay, too often killed, French by frost-bite, bore witness to the severity of the Frostcold they had had to endure. And again. There is one sure disease which always becomes the Accuser -the implacable Accuser-of those who undertake, and yet fail, to provide such food for an army as may be fitted to sustain it in health. The scurvy Scurvy. raged; and the cause of scurvy is always one and the same-the want of appropriate food. It was in the navy of the French that the accusing disease first appeared; but it afterwards invaded their camps, and there, soon taking formidable proportions, seemed threatening to seize the whole army.§ In the month of February, 3000 of the French troops were afflicted

* In December and January alone the men brought into the ambulances, because stricken with frost-bite, were 2603.- Rapport,' pp. 72,

75.

+ Of course the question, 'What is appropriate food?' depends upon a variety of circumstances, as-e.g., amongst others, upon the temperature and upon the quantity of work exacted. The principal medical officer of the French army thus states the cause of the scurvy afflicting Canrobert's troops: Les causes de l'invasion scorbutique sont, comme 'toujours, l'absence absolue de végétaux frais, l'usage prolongé de vivres 'de campagne, et surtout l'usage de la viande salée; la fatigue, pas assez de repos, pas assez de sommeil, le froid, et l'humidité.'-Circular of the principal medical officer, Rapport,' p. 81.

In chronicling the medical state for December 1854, the 'Rapport' says, 'Le scorbut prend des proportions énormes dans la flotte'-p. 71. § Dans le mois de Fevrier, le scorbut prend un développement con'siderable, et ménace d'envahir toute l'armée.'-' Rapport,' p. 81.

VIII.

CHAP. with scurvy-with scurvy, disclosed by the tumours, the erosions of the gums, the sores, the discharges of blood, which at once make its presence apparent to any medical eye; and during the two months that

followed, there were received into the ambulances
alone, without counting men brought into hospitals,
nearly 1800 new patients, all afflicted with the same
fell disease. And although for a moment drawn on
beyond the first winter campaign, we yet-being now
on such subjects-will stop to hear out the impeach-
ment which scurvy, by its mere presence, brought
against the Imperial Government for not duly feed-
ing its troops. Within the whole period of twenty
months, which began in November 1854, and ended
in June 1856, the ambulances of the French, and
four-only four-out of all their twenty-three hos-
pitals received patients afflicted with scurvy-with
palpable, recognised scurvy
scurvy to the number of

23,250 +

And none must suppose that the malady smote only those twenty-three thousand who were labelled as men seized with scurvy; for it is certain that of the other and yet more numerous thousands laid low by other complaints, a large proportion were men whose diseases had either been caused, or else in no small measure aggravated by the presence of the scorbutic taint.§

91.

* Ibid.

+836 in March, and 963 in April, making 1799.-Rapport,' pp. 89,

Ibid., p. 565.

§ If a thousand men are brought into hospital for recognised scurvy,