WOMEN AND THE HOSPITALS IN EGYPT.
I To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sse,—Lord Morley's report on the state of the sick and wounded in our Egyptian hospitals, as commented upon in your columns,. brings out a fact of some significance, on-which too little stress, perhaps, has hitherto been laid. At Cairo there were two Army hospitals,—one engineered from first to last by a woman,. Lady Strangford, who collected funds for the purpose, and went out to Egypt to see herself to their disposal; the other managed by men alone, with all the resources of the State to back them. The- first, according to Lord Wolseley's evidence, was in perfect work- ing order, complete in all appliances, nothing wanting, nothing forgotten, everything turned to account and made the best of,— witness the cheap and comfortable palm-leaf bedsteads, discovered in the town by Lady Strangford herself, and bought by her, any- number of them, for 2s. 6d. each. At the other hospital,. according to the same report, all was muddle and misery. The- food was bad ; dirt and discomfort reigned supreme. 'The sick and wounded were lying on the ground, suffering torments, for- went of the commonest necessaries, the officials helpless in the midst of chaos.
In view of this contrast—repeated also at the Crimea and elsewhere—it may be seriously urged : Is there no way in which the admitted efficiency of women in hospital management can be recognised officially, and turned to account in these national emergencies ? Their large resourcefulness, their genius for- detail, their quickness in utilising make-shift material, would render their counsel and co-operation in this department pre- eminently valuable. Hospital management is, in effect, but a more arduous kind of housekeeping,—housekeeping combined with the charge of the sick. For both these functions, women by nature have a special fitness. So long as war is a necessity for us as a nation, so long it is not only sound policy, but a duty of the highest order, to do the best we can for our wounded, sick,. and dying soldiers. I would humbly submit that before the need surprises us again, means be devised for securing officially the supervision or assistance of capable, experienced, and sen- sible women; women of standing and education, loyal and self- devoted, who would bring into the work the element which now
it lacks. Nothing, perhaps, would do more to redeem our war- hospital service, so far as commissariat, sick nursing, and de- tailed management are concerned, from the charge of inefficiency which has been justly brought against it.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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