Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/325

 FOR THE INVASION. 295 ■whether, with the soldiers iu this condition of chap. XVII body, it was right to undertake an invasion. '_ The answer would be this : the medical author- ities thought, and with apparently good reason, that, for troops sickening under the fierce sum- mer heats of Bulgaria, the sea voyage, the descent upon another and more healthy shore, and, above all, the animating presence of the enemy, would work a good effect upon the health of the men ; and, although these hopes proved vain, they .seemed at the time to rest upon fair grounds. And, after all, it is hard to say what other dis- position of the troops would have united the advantages of being better and possible. To re- main in Bulgaria, or to attempt to operate in the neighbourhood of the Danube, was to linger iu the midst of those very atmospheric poisons which had brought the health of the army to its then state ; and, on the other hand, our people at home would hardly have borne to see the army sent back to Malta, and forced to recede from the conflict, for the bare reason that some of the men were in hospital, and that the rest, without being ill, were said to be iu a weakly coudition.