Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/491

 APPENDIX. 447 Note 64. — Out of an original strength of more tlian a thousand, there only, it seems, remained thirty. Note 65. — The want of an ambulance corps had driven our people, as we saw, to the makeshift of employing the bandsmen to attend the sick and the wounded. Note G6. — The instance alluded to was that of an answer given to Lord Raglan by a soldier of the 1st Battalion of Rifles, and that battalion was one attached to the 4th Division — the very division that suti'ured the most. Note 67. — The Quartermastei'-General before the Chelsea Board, p. 171. Note 68. — The outer coat was one thoughtfully sent him from Vienna by Lady Westmoreland. Note 69. — Note respectincj the C'ausef; of Admissions into Hospital, — Exclusive of cases treated at Scutari, the troops serving in the Crimea, from the 1st October 1854 to the 31st of March 1855, contributed during that time 52,548 admissions into hospital, of which only 3806 were occasioned by wounds; so that 48,742 admissions were caused exclusively by sickness. In this number the cases of zymotic disease were : — Scurvy, 1 678* Cholera, Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Fevers, Total, 36,179t • This number, it seems, only included those cases of scurvy which were evidenced by the characteristic sores ; and it is believed that, in a very, very large proportion of the other admissions, the patients were suffering from the presence of the scorbutic taint. Thus, out of the 48,742 admissions on account of sickness, there were only 12,563 — not very much more than one-fourth — which could not be classed as zymotic. Science likes, it appears, to declare that all zymotic disease is ' pre- ' ventible,' and perhaps there may be some refined sense in which the proposition is accurate ; but it can hardly be meant that (except of course by foregoing their military enterprises) the French and the English Governments could have really averted those outbreaks of cholera from which their forces cruelly suffered. What known precautions could have averted cholera from Canrobert's Division in the Dobrudja, or from the crew of the Britannia when suddenly smitten at sea, or from the army of Lord Raglan on the night of the '24th of September, when receiving ex- cellent food and lying on gi'ound newly reached, amongst pleasant villas and gardens in the lovely vale of the Balbec? t Dr Hall's Report. 2,167 . 18, 08 4,441 9,185