Page:Introductory lecture delivered to the class of military surgery in the University of Edinburgh, May 1, 1855 (IA b21916469).pdf/25

24 hands (to use a seaman’s phrase) could not be spared from the Crimea, to man these auxiliary hospitals, but, with the diminished numbers and improved health of our army in that quarter, occasion might have been found for the promotion of some half-dozen of staff-surgeons, to be placed at the head of them; and I make no doubt that many of the young gentlemen who have volunteered for the duties of those hospitals would have preferred serving under men of rank, standing, and experience in the army. What is it, I should be glad to know, that is required from the civil hospitals? is it those limited powers often imposed upon physicians and surgeons by a close-fisted treasurer? is it those delays and impediments to improvement occurring from the necessity of a reference to the governors? is it that vexatious interference on professional points sometimes exercised by a philosophic manager? or is it that divided and imperfect responsibility under which medical men have sometimes been enabled to shelter themselves when decidedly in the wrong?

The military hospitals, in my younger days, were looked to as patterns for imitation in the organization of similar establishments for the purposes of civil life. I have now had