Page:Introductory lecture delivered to the class of military surgery in the University of Edinburgh, May 1, 1855 (IA b21916469).pdf/12

11 dying of fever, dysentery, or abscess in the liver.

It is. Gentlemen, in the hope of being able to suggest a few hints for your guidance that I have hazarded these remarks; and it is in the same spirit that would, with great deference, advert to what, so far as I can see, appears to have been the only defect of the Medical Department—an excess of good nature, in mixing itself, or permitting itself to be mixed, with the duties, and saddled with the responsibilities of another department.

There is all the difference between the duties of a purveyor and of a surgeon, that there is between food and physic, and it would be well that these were kept as distinct in their supply as in their exhibition. There are, indeed, some articles termed "medical comforts," such as wine and sago, brandy and arrow-root, which occupy a sort of neutral ground; and if the medical officer is ordered to furnish these, he has nothing to do but, like a good soldier, to obey; but even of these I should be glad to see him enabled to wash his hands. I do not see why he should, of necessity, be compelled to be a taster of wine or a connoisseur in brandy. If these articles are found to be faulty, there is always a means of