trItu tu tht attar.
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT ON THE ARMY.
SIB.I have read with pleasure a letter which appeared in your paper of the 10th instant, signed "An Old Officer." It certainly does appear very hard that the Duke of Newcastle, as Minister at War, should be expected to enter into the details of the management or rather mismanagement of the Medical Department of the Army, of which it cannot be expected that he can have much personal knowledge. The noble Duke has done a great deal in paying immediate attention to and acting on the suggestions made by that old and experienced military surgeon Mr. Guthrie. It might have been reasonably expected that similar suggestions should have been made and acted on long ago by the Director-General of the Aroiv Medical Department ; the more especially as the whole details, with an illustrative frontispiece, are given in Staff-Surgeon Millingen's Army Medical Officer's Manual. (8vo. London, 1819.) It does appear that there is something wrong in the way in which this important department is managed, else why should the principal medical officer at the seat of war, only recently appointed, have already resigned his appointment, in disgust, it is said, at the conduct of the heads of the department at home ? And why, it may reasonably be asked, is not the Director-General himself at the seat of war, where his venerable predecessor, Sir James M‘Grigor, was always to be found ? Can it be, as is currently reported, that the present Director-General has had no regimental service ? that he has never had any important medical charge abroad ? and that he is consequently but little acquainted with the wants or habits of soldiers, or the requirements of the battle-field ? If so, it would be in- teresting to know, What are the qualities or services which entitle a man to look forward to this the highest medical appointment ? There are many distinguished military surgeons, men of eminence, welt known both to the profession and the public, to whom it is natural to suppose that this high office would be an object of laudable ambition: but these appear to have been passed over. I write this letter in the hope that some satisfactory answer may be elicited to the questions I have ventured to ask ; which appear of very grave import in medical circles, and are certainly not a little interesting to all persons who have the welfare of our brave Army at heart.
Your obedient servant,
A PHYSICIAN, BUT NOT A MILITARY ONE.
Previous page
