THE BEST USE OF CHELSEA HOSPITAL.
.Lesketh How, Ambleside, 16th June 1857. Sut—Misappropriation seems to be very much the order of the day. We have the cry of "The right man in the right place !" another, and a like cry, is not less needed, "The right use of the right place!" In the last number of your paper, following the Timms, you have raised your voice against the site of the new hospital at Netley, so objectionable, as also in its mode of ventilation and construction, if correctly reported on. You have pointed out how well adapted Chelsea Hospital is for the reception of the sick and invalids of the Army, and how much better pleased the pensioned soldier would be, and happier, free in his native village and home, than confined within the walls of the "College." Another example of misappropriation is worthy of note : it is that of Fort Pitt, Chatham, where a general hospital has been establishedin a building fit only for a barrack. For a barrack it was originally constructed ; were it reconverted into a barrack, and were Chelsea Hospital made the general hospital of the Army, how great would be the good of the change ! The public purse would be spared, the invalided pensioner would be liberated, scope would be afforded to found a school of military surgery, and a place found admirably adapted in connexion with such a school for that museum of the medical department, deservedly its pride, (the pathological division) which is now in a great measure lost to the service from its location at Fort Pitt instead of in London.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN DAVY,
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