Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/181

 STATE BEFORE THE HUKRICANE, 137 To all these shortcomings on the part of the chap. London authorities, one more must be added. L_ The govenimeut of free States can hardly be expected to march in the van of civilisation, and it would therefore be hard to let loose on administrators a pitiless torrent of blame for having omitted to take so very novel a measure as that of sending out engineers to guard the health of our army ; but apparently there is no room to doubt that a sanitary expedition of that kind, if despatched in good time, might have saved great numbers of lives.(2^) Modern science has learnt, and is patiently trying to teach that when human beings in numbers long remain closely gathered together upon ground unprepared for such crowding, they too often generate, or rather perhaps diffuse, poisons de- structive of health and life — poisons not to be conquered by medicine or well-chosen food, or by the good internal management of houses or hospitals, but yielding, and yielding promptly, to the onset of the skilled engineer, who leads his chosen band of artificers, and his workmen with pickaxe and spade. Whilst Lord Aber- deen's Government lasted, no effort of that kind was made to defend the health of our army. With the knowledge we now have acquired of the absence of an anterior organisation for hospital construction and management, and the want that there was of authority and active brain-power applied to make good past neglect, we can scarcely help inferring beforehand that the endeavours of our people to deal with any