des armées de terre pour le classement et le traitement. Il en sera de même pour les accessoires, les indemnités, les congés, les retraites et autres attributions. "CAMBACÉRES, Président.

"Signé

"ROUX, VERRON, RABAUT, MARNE, Comité."

"How simply and easily such a law would have settled all the contentions which not long since disturbed the medical corps of our navy," says Mr. Richard C. Dean, Medical Inspector, United States Navy, from whose report on the "Naval Medical Schools of France and England" the foregoing extracts have been taken.

Since then these medical schools have been carried on with ever

increasing success. The marvellous faculty of organisation possessed by the French has produced a system which seems to be almost faultless; and the substratum was too good from the beginning to need anything but partial and bit-by-bit reforms as time went on and knowledge increased. The discipline is strict; the examinations are sufficiently stiff; the cost of the whole education is borne by the government; but in return the medical men so educated engage to remain in the service for ten years, or to restore to the department the amount spent in procuring their degree; and, according to Inspector Dean's report, the wise liberality of the administration is felt in each department and in all the hospitals alike.

This naval medical Hospital had been established for more than a century at Rochefort before we in England recognised the importance of a like school for our own army and navy; but that such a school was imperatively necessary became every year more evident. Still, new views find it hard to get a hearing, and Dr. Robert Jackson, Sir J. Ranald Martin, and Dr. Parkes urged the question long and warmly before the authorities would allow themselves to be stirred. The shortcomings of our military medical and hospital service brought to light in the Crimean war, the efforts of the three men referred to and of Lord Sydney Herbert, and the evidence given by the action of Miss Nightingale at last found their fitting response; and in 1857 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the sanitary condition of the army. "A new system of regulations was prepared by this commission," says Dr. Parkes, "which entirely altered the position of the army medical officer. Previously the army surgeon had been entrusted officially merely with the care of the sick, though he had naturally been frequently consulted on the preservation of health and the prevention of disease. But the regulations of 1859 gave him an official position in this direction, as he is ordered to advise commanding officers in all matters affecting the

health of troops, whether as regards garrisons, stations, camps, and barracks, or diet, clothing, drill, duties, and exercises.

"The commission also recommended that, to enable the army surgeon to do this efficiently, an army medical school should be established, in which the specialties of military medicine and surgery, hygiene and sanitary medicine, might be taught to the young medical officers of the army."

The result of all this was that, on the establishment of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley-the first stone of which was laid by the Queen in 1856-not only a noble healing place was provided for the sick and wounded, but also a grand medical school was set on foot for the better and more specialised education of the men into whose care they had to be given. "But," again quoting from Inspector Dean's report,

although it was on the recommendation of the Royal Commissioners that the army medical school was finally organised, the idea of such a school by no means originated with that body. It was Dr. John Bell, a distinguished surgeon and teacher of Edinburgh, one of a name and family that have given many honoured members to the medical profession, who, seeing the low state of surgical knowledge among the naval surgeons of the fleet when he visited their hospitals at Yarmouth, after the battle of Camperdown, first called the attention of the British Government to the necessity of establishing what he called a "great school of military surgery." The effect of this memoir was the establishment of the "military surgery chair" in the University of Edinburgh. The first occupant of the chair was Dr. John Thomson, who was appointed in 1806, and was succeeded in 1822 by Sir George Ballingall, an army surgeon of experience, and author of the well-known "Outlines of Military Surgery." In the year 1805 Dr. Robert Jackson, often styled the "Prince of Army Surgeons," published his excellent treatise on the "Medical Department of Armies." In this work Dr. Jackson unfolded an elaborate scheme for an "army medical practical school," which he proposed to establish in connection with the invalid dépôt in the Isle of Wight. The plan of this famous army surgeon was, in all essential particulars, the same as that laid down in the present constitution of the army medical school; this remarkable man having on this, as on so many other subjects, ideas in advance of the age in which he lived. The only step taken in this matter, until after the Crimean war, was the establishment of another chair of military surgery in Dublin. This and the corresponding chair in Edinburgh were finally abolished when the army medical school was opened in 1860.

The institution was first placed at Fort Pitt, Chatham; but in 1863 the Royal Victoria Hospital was opened at Netley, and to it were removed the school, the pathological museum, and the two libraries connected with the medical department of the army, as it was believed that young medical officers would have there better advantages for the study of disease.

Nowhere in the world, at the present time, is there such an admirable military medical school as this at Netley Hospital; nowhere are the four subjects of military medicine, military surgery, military

hygiene, and pathology, taught with more thoroughness, more efficiency. Especially in the department of hygiene does it "stand unrivalled by any other similar institution in Europe or America," under the direction of Professor de Chaumont. The range of subjects taught in this department is of the most comprehensive kind. No subject in any way connected with health is omitted. From the influence of climate to the relative nutritive value of meats dried, smoked, salted and fresh; from the geographical distribution of disease and mortality to the art of cooking; from the transmissibility of disease to the science of ventilation-with every other conceivable question directly and indirectly affecting the health of armies and fleets-is taught through and through. Consequently, Netley turns out a set of military and naval hygienists superior to any to be found elsewhere; for it ought to have been said in its place that in 1872 the medical school at this Hospital was made to include the naval service as well as the military, and that the blue-jackets are represented and cared for all the same as the red-coats.

The Army Medical School is a kind of imperium in imperio, being governed by its own Senate which sits for the despatch of business as often as necessary, having a distinct and independent existence under the Secretary of State for War. The Senate consists of the Directors-General of the Medical Departments of the Army and Navy, who preside at its meetings; the Physician to the Council of India; the Professors of the School; and the Principal Medical Officer of the Royal Victoria Hospital ex officio. No act of the Senate is binding until it has received the approval of the Secretary of State for War; and the whole management of the School is entirely under its jurisdiction. There are four professors, teachers of the four subjects spoken of above; and the students, or, as they are called, candidates, are kept strict and sharp to work and time.

The spirit of discipline which informs the working of this Hospital, both in the sick wards and in the school, is one of the most noteworthy and individual features here. The absence of all slovenly looseness and of all spasmodic energy alike, the regularity, order, punctuality, method, and perfect training characteristic of a highly organised service and a highly disciplined body of men, make Netley Hospital a different thing altogether from the ordinary civilian hospital; and no student of large organisations should fail to make a careful study of this.

The Hospital, a grand red-brick building faced with Portland stone, and a quarter of a mile from end to end, is a conspicuous object as it stands on a little eminence overlooking Southampton Water.

Founded, as was said, in 1856, the foundation stone is visible in a small sunken space, railed round. The first public place visited by the Queen after the death of the Prince Consort was Netley Hospital. Her Majesty was profoundly affected when she read the legend on the stone, and recalled the fact that when she saw it placed in position and pronounced it "well and duly laid," her beloved husband was by her side. A monument in the grounds, raised to the memory of the medical officers who fell in the Crimea, speaks of other widows, other orphans, and the undying memory of respect and love; and the fine repute of Surgeon-General Beatson is per petuated by the memorial window given to the chapel by the officers who knew and loved him. Of this chapel, by the way, no sectarian narrowness can be alleged, as here are held the three services respectively of the English, Roman Catholic, and Presbyterian churches; each at its appointed time, and all without mutual bitterness or interference.

The medical visit round the wards is made with military precision, at 9 A.M. in summer, 10 A.M. in winter; and the Orderlies, or male nurses, are paraded thrice a day to prove themselves sober, fit and competent for their duties. At 9 P.M. the Orderly Medical Officer "will be careful to see that all the orderlies are present, and that all the patients are in bed." There are female nurses, however, as well as the Orderlies; six work by day and two by night, with two Sisters for sick officers. They attend to the sick and are chiefly told off for the more desperate or dying cases. They make all the poultices required, all drinks, arrowroot and the like; they administer the medicines and apply the medical treatment ordered by the officer; they help the Orderlies in their duties; and they attend to such surgical cases as are fit for women to deal with. But the administration of Netley recognises modesty as a feminine virtue and suffers no female hand in such cases or circumstances as would outrage the natural modesty of a good woman. In this we venture to think the great military Hospital of the United Kingdom shows a wise resolve and supports a great principle. The Sisters are women of good class and thoroughly trained to their duties; and the common failure of the order, their want of discipline, is here reduced to a minimum and rendered almost impossible.

What they are and what they can do when put to it was shown in the military promptness with which Mrs. Deeble and her six nurses made themselves ready for Zulu Land, in less than a week's notice. In a week's time substitutes to take their place at Netley were found, and all their own preparations were made; stores, drugs, appliances were

all got together and packed; but no finery, no toys, no useless incumbrances of any kind were included. All was strict, business-like, purposeful; and the work that they did was as satisfactory as were the workers. They were away for eleven months, working cheerfully and well all the time.

The pay of these nurses is small-beginning at £30 per annum and ending at the maximum of £50 by a rise of £2 yearly. Besides this, they have food and washing found, and are given £4. 7s. yearly for uniform. After twenty years' service they are pensioned off; but they receive a pension if they have been disabled in the service after five years' work. There are some among them who think their pay should be increased by £5 a year; and certainly the greater the reward held out the better would be the class of woman secured to the service. But the just scale of class payment is one of those "burning questions" which generally scorch the fingers of those who handle them; and too many considerations are involved in the fit remuneration of military nurses to be settled off hand in a couple of sentences.

What has been a more important, and even a more hotly burning question, is the relative positions to be held by the combatant and the healing branches of the service. For a long time, in spite of many improvements as regards rank, pay, opportunities for personal distinctions, and a fairer share of honorary rewards, the position of army surgeons was not satisfactory, causing high-class professional young men to hold back from the service. To such a large extent have the disabilities of army medical officers of late been removed, that the jealousy of combatant officers has been a little awakened, As old officers accustomed to the service as it was in their youth retire or die out, all this will disappear. Under any circumstances the authorities are not likely to make a retrograde step in this matter, nor, having opened an avenue to distinction which rightly honours those who take it, shall we fall back into the old error of degrading a noble profession by discrediting its professors. As things are, the medical branch of the service is one which any gentleman may enter with as much pride and more profit than he finds in the combatant branch. The rank awarded is parallel and the pay better.

In a very few years we shall see a total revolution of feeling in this matter; and the sons of gentlemen, who once would have considered themselves déclassés had they studied surgery or hygiene in the service where the practice of gunnery and barrack-yard drill would have been an honour, will be glad to go through a course of instruction which of itself guarantees the working quality of their