Page:Introductory lecture delivered to the class of military surgery in the University of Edinburgh, May 1, 1855 (IA b21916469).pdf/32

31 many eminent friends in civil life that I express myself thus strongly, but for the purpose of deprecating what I consider an injustice to the medical department of the army.

It is not, Gentlemen, I repeat, from the want of able and intelligent men among the staff and regimental surgeons serving in the army of the Crimea, that that army has in any degree suffered. The want of that army, as of many others, has been in the inferior ranks, indeed in the very lowest grade of the attaches to the medical department—the want of a numerous and efficient hospital corps. In so far as some of the duties of such a corps have been zealously, kindly, and successfully discharged by Miss Nightingale and her female followers, I most willingly acknowledge the civil element; and in so far as these benevolent ladies have made up for the want of numerous orderlies, and thus spared the effective force of regiments, I am sure that every commanding officer will feel grateful to them.

Touching the alleged failures in the Crimea, "the medical department failed," says a public writer, "not because Surgeon Brown could not dress a wound, or Dr. Jones prescribe for a case of dysentery, but because no adequate prepara-