14 OCTOBER 1854, Page 13

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE HOSPITAL.

WAR, which brings triumph to the nation, and provides exciting narratives for the multitude, brings suffering to those who engage in its work, mourning for many, and duties for all. A campaign is going on at home as well as in the East ; the wounds inflicted there cut deep here ; and many women and children, who cannot share in the triumph—their depressed condition debarring them from the perception of what that triumph consists in—yet share the suffering. Their case, indeed, is so evident, that many who have the means have been impatient to anticipate the action of Government; and the Commission which will shortly issue to su- perintend the collection and administration of a provident fund, is outrun by an amateur Association to collect and administer a Pa- triotic Fund for a similar purpose. That class of duties therefore, we may presume, will be performed : but there still are sufferers for whom the provision is inefficient—the wounded.

Whatever may be the improved arrangements for the carriage of the sick, the strength of the medical force has not been enough to cope with the work provided for it through the daring of our soldiers. It may be said that we do not expect to have a battle of the Alma every day : but manifestly the intention of the present campaign is to press hard upon the enemy, with all the strength and rapidity that the most powerful army, strongly officered and perfectly equipped, can command. The pressure is put upon an enemy obstinate and not slow to turn against the assailant. It follows that the campaign is likely to be bloody ; that no place is more likely to be strongly garrisoned than our hospitals; and that the plainest considerations of military policy would suggest a strong staff of surgeons as the means of replacing the wounded as rapidly as possible in the field of battle. So far on simply military grounds.

Something more, however, than the routine cure of the soldier, would be a grace suitable to the day and to the spirit of the war. Such is the gift to the English Army which Sir Robert Peel begins with a donation of 2001. sent to the Times, and intended to initiate a fund of 10,0001. for the comfort and benefit of the wounded. It would be an abuse of this charity if it were applied in eking out the stint of medical assistance, which Government ought to render strong enough, in the number of hands, the efficiency of the officers and hospital equipment, to provide aid for every need on the spot and at the moment. If the army is defective in that de- partment, the medical corps must be recruited; if the corps is not efficient, more efficient men must be found. If the inferior social rank and the low pay prevent medical men from offering themselves as recruits, our reformed War Department cannot manifest its capacity better than by instantly adopting those measures which will reform the abuse. Already we have Guards upon whom we can rely in the van of the battle ; and it is a treachery to our own soldiers, a breach of duty to the state, if we have not surgeons in the rear able to restore the wounded sol- dier to his post, or to smooth the way of the incurable to his home or to the grave.