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a severe winter and sickly autumn and summer, near theswamps of the Danube. This fatality amongst the recent re-inforcements sent from England demands careful attention.

Again, in a surgical point of view, amongst the wounded, ourlast accounts mention the want of success in some operations, Idepending on a want of adherence to the rule we have alreadylaid down. That of primary operations, the mortality amongstthe wounded, it is said, "is accounted for by the wish of thesurgeons to avoid amputations; therefore mcczzyhad been deferredtoo long. " This extract tells its own tale; but this is not thetime to follow up the subject, or the mistake committed byDr. Hall in depriving the wounded of the soothing advantagesof chloroform.We cannot say that we entirely agree with the indiscriminate

censure heaped on everything, even on the medical departmentof the English army. The expedition, it will be remembered,has been of a most formidable nature from the first. If we havebeen fighting such terrible, and perhaps ill-judged battles, as thatof Alma; defending, at the loss of our best soldiers, our positionat Balaklava ; obliged to oppose a comparative handful of ourmen to 60,000 picked Russian troops at Inkermann—our Frenchfriends have been learning s’anéantir, merely advancing theircooking ovens and field-works. The French have also a betterbase of operations at Kamieth, with harbour and wharf for thelanding of provisions, hospital necessaries, &c., while we havebeen lending them our ships. If, in the Crimea, while wehave paid for hospital provisions, their mot d’ordre has beento take every thing in the shape of fire-wood, cattle, vege-tables, &c., they could meet, it will be, perhaps, more philo-sophic to say that they have not owed everything exactly tomere " organization." We now find (and we are glad to cor-rect a contrary impression abroad) that our own ambulances,twelve in number, have really been in the field of battle-atInkermann, as early as eight o’clock in the morning of thateventful day; also, at Balaklava. Our wounded have comemore suddenly, it must be remembered, and in quite overwhelm-ing numbers, on our over-worked surgeons, who have hithertodone everything that science and humanity could suggest, sothat we have had many disadvantages; we should yet hopefor an interchange, however, of good offices between the

surgeons of both arms of the service, both English and French,and if we have lent them our ships, and have been, perhaps,fighting bravely their battles, the kindly recognition of suchservices may be now acknowledged, in the event of an attack onSebastopol, by having many or all things in common, underthe description of hospital necessaries, beds, ambulances, &c.The first duty of all is towards the sick and wounded, andno punctilious adherence to War-office regulations should nowprevent our sharing in the surgical skill or obligations ourfriends may be inclined to offer.Our French allies, encamped on the site of the ancient

Khersonesus, receive their supplies at Kamieth, a sheltered,narrow bay, like Balaklava. A well arranged wharf allows thenecessary landing of their stores of medicines, hospital beds,ambulances, &c., while our harbour of Balaklava has beenlikened, briefly but inauspiciously, to a wash-hand-basin half-full of water, a black wafer, dropped on the water at the edge,representing an English ship struggling to land her supplies.Here, it will be remembered, in the terrible storm of lastmonth, the ship P?"mce, laden with hospital supplies, medi-cines, warm clothing, &c., was totally wrecked. So well haveour French friends, on the other hand, posted themselves, andalready fraternized with the inhabitants of the Crimea, that,half way between Khersonesus and Balaklava, a regiment ofFrench Zouaves has been placed in barrack without molesta-tion in a large Russian temple, or college, on the coast, stillinhabited by Greek priests. The French, allowed to takecattle, corn, &c., as they please, while the strictest orders ofan opposite kind have been issued by the English Commander-in-Chief. It is said our snowed-up trenches and parapets, also,are more exposed, and placed lower down the slopes outsideSebastopol, than those of the French; so that, in many parti-culars, it will be remembered our sick and wounded are disad-vantageously situated;- -all these circumstances must be takeninto account in forming an estimate of the relative sanitary orhygienic condition of the two armies. Again, we believe, inassailing Sebastopol, some other peculiarities of the siege are toooften lost sight of. In ordinary sieges, a town is entirely in-vested on all sides, and the outside are of batteries are larger andmore full of guns than those of the town itself, a breach is soonmade; but here, though the allied field-works are three miles inextent, the Russians have as many guns as we have, now forseveral weeks engaged firing, and all the north part of thetown is open. In this way, the bombardment has degenerated

into a series of harrassing sorties, n-ith almost perpctual workfor the English troops exposed in the ice and trenches, thus pro-ducingfever, dysentery, rheumatism, &c., togetherwith wounds.

This, we need scarcely say, was all unexpected at first so thatthose purely medical arrangements now found so necessary, andadministered by Miss Nightingale and the nurses from England,could scarcely have been anticipated. We are told now of3500 sick in those trenches alone. It was intended ratherto attack Sebastopol by sea; but the Russian general, irame-diately after the battle of Alma, perceiving this, had eight ofhis ships sunk across the mouth of the harbour to keep out ourBlack Sea squadrons, thus further embarrassing the troops onland. On the 17th of October it will be remembered at dav-break the first combined attack took place, 126 of our largestcannon opened on Sebastopol, the Russians answering with astill larger number! Very soon, however—about eight o’clock—the French battery and magazine blew up, with fifty killed andwounded. At one o’clock the French and English fleets stoodin to join in the attack; the volleying thunder of their broad-sides, with the railway train roar of our rushing Lancasterguns, described as making such a crashing din as was neverperhaps heard in the world before. Yet all to no effect, butto the still protracting the bad hygienic condition of our troopsin the trenches. The French batteries were all silenced, andour troops only felt more disappointed than ever. On the25th, however, 30,000 men, under the Russian general,menaced Balaklava. In that terrible affair our light cavalrylost 10 officers and 147 men, 11 officers and 110 wounded; theheavy brigade, 87 wounded, 20 killed, and something like 400horses killed. Next day, again, it was said 1000 Russianswere killed, while we had also 60 wounded and a large numberkilled. The great battle of Inkermann soon followed, we needscarcely say, on Nov. 5th, as we mentioned at the time.

60,000 Russians came on, in a deadly morning fog, and op-posed 14,000 of the allies; 5000 of the former being left deadon the field. It is necessary to call to mind all these frightfullosses and sufferings, chiefly felt by the English portion of thearmy, before we find fault with its numbers now diminished tohalf that splendid force (54,000 men) which first fought amongstthe dells and broken acclivities of the river Alma.With such formidable scenes before us, we can now under-

stand the last returns, made up to the end of the year. Fifty-three ships, we are told, with sick and wounded, had arrived,from the beginning of the expedition, at Scutari; the numberof sick and wounded under care from the entire army originallyembarked amounting to 11,850; the number of those dying inthe passage across the Black Sea, 654; deaths at Scutari, 2044,(this large mortality is independent, of course, of those killedin battle, and dying in the hospital tents before Sebastopol ofdysentery, diarrhœa, cholera, &c., these diseases, we regret tosay, being still very prevalent.) 133 deaths had occurred atScutari from the 2nd to the 7th of the present month; of these106 were caused by these diseases alone.From our latest correspondence, we find other hospitals are

being fitted up: one at Abydos, to which 400 convalescentwounded had been removed; one of the Sultan’s countrypalaces has also been fitted up-a gorgeous Ottoman drawing-room and theatre turned into wards and operating-theatre forsick ! Hospital gangrene had already invaded even these newhospitals. 4400 sick were under care in all the English hos-pitals at Constantinople on the 10th January, and 600 morehad just arrived. In the drawing-rooms and palace apart-ments of this beautiful castle of the Sultan, with English sur-

geons, recent Guy’s and St. Bartholomew’s students as assist-ants-in apartments looking out on the poetic waters of the

. Bosphorus, with mosques and kiosks in the distance, our privateletters now tell us 900 wounded are already under treatment.

The labours here continue incessant. But we must not at

present spoil such a picture by further or more commonplacedetails.

__

THE WAR.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]HEIGHTS ABOVE SEBASTOPOL, January 4th, 1855.

WINTER, I think we may say justly, has now begun inearnest, if we may judge by the state of the weather and bythe cold these last few days. We have had snow, but notuntil to-day has it seemed inclined to remain on the ground;now it is about half-a-foot deep, and still goes on increasing,and I am afraid will last for days. As you may suppose, dis-ease is greatly on the increase; not only are the drafts suffer-

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ing. but also many of the fine old soldiers who never beforewere in hospital. Most men that arrive now scon find them-selves inmates of an hospital tent, which is not to be wonderedat, coming from a comfortable quarter to live in such wretched-ness. exposed to the fury of the elements, their diet and modeof living so suddenly changed; if it were otherwise, it wouldindeed be strange. Not to mention the duties of the men,which are very trying-twelve hours in the trenches or onpicquet, in all weathers, day and night, often soaked in rain,and, on returning, having nothing to change; so, in fact, theirclothes always dry on them, such as they are, very scanty, andwhat they have much worn and torn, consequently are insuffi-cient protection against the weather. Each man has twoblankets, one of which he takes with him on duty, and leavesthe other in his tent; of course the former is generally wet.I am glad to say, fresh clothing has come out for the men-flannel shirts, drawers, socks, trousers, coats, &c., which, in-deed, is a blessing for the poor fellows. The state of theweather and roads is so bad, that things are brought up withdiniculty, so the men have not had all these comforts issued tothem as yet; in fact, I hear a few have not yet had twoblankets given to them. This ought to have been remedied.The reason is, that nearly all the horses are dead from want offorage, so all by this suffer. Fatigue parties are sent downto Balaklava, by many regiments to bring up provisions, &c.,and there you will often see hundreds of poor fellows trudginghome laden either with salt pork, biscuit, or clothing, a dutythat ought to be performed by the commissariat. Many poorfellows are unable to do it, and by this extra duty hospitals aredaily reinforced. The ambulance corps is a lamentable failure- most of the pensioners dead (killed themselves by drinking),-and the mules gone. Our French allies have assisted us totake our sick down to Balaklava. One day they sent us 300mules for that purpose, each carrying two persons, either lay-ing down or sitting up, balanced one on each side; since this,they have again lent us their aid. It is a sad thing tobe in such a state. God knows what we should do ifwe had another sharp engagement; they would have againto come to our succour (mirabile dectu). A word maybe said about the ambulance carts themselves. Experiencebought is experience taught. The pensioners who remain,who may be supposed to be the steady ones, complain greatlyof them ; they say they are too heavy for this work, and Ithink most bv this time have come to the same conclusion. Infine dry weather they are all very well, but if you could ima-gine the state of the country, you would see that the Frenchmules are far’ preferable, and always complete their journey,while our wagons often stick half way, the horses or mulesbeing unable to drag them, though six or eight are used to each;certainly they are small and in bad condition, but however goodthey maybe on many occasions, they are of no use here. It wouldbe of immense advantage to have a few hundreds of thesemules in addition to the ambulance carts. The French mules,I believe, come from the Pyrenees, are not well bred, but verystrong and just the thing for this place; ours are too well bred,and do not rough it so well: they mostly come from Malta andthe Mediterranean, and by this time those that are alive are ina most pitiable state.Some of the wooden houses have arrived ; the sick doubtless

will first inhabit them, which will be a great thing, and bythis we shall not require to send down to Balaklava or onboard, I hope-that is, if we can get well supplied with medi-cine and medical comforts at camp, so the ambulance corpswill likewise benefit by the arrangements.

I see by the papers that more ambulance carts are comingout. I trust they will be better equipped both as regardshorses and drivers. Some complaint ought also to be maderegarding the stores’ of medicines. Doubtless an immensequantity has been used, especially of chalk with opium, com-pound ipecacuanha powder, and mercury with chalk ; the twoformer have been quite out and none to be obtained at Bala-

’ klava. The fault lies somewhere, however. I hope this willsoon be put to rights as inquiry has been made of each regi-mental surgeon concerning hospital arrangements, and a re-port has been sent in by each. I will send you the questionsto be reported on, if possible. Dysentery still rages to a fear-ful extent. The common remark of the men is, that itpasses from them as they go along; this is really the case, too;they seem, at least, to have no control over themselves; and,before they can get five yards, their faces pass. It generallybegins as diarrhœa, and, in a very short time, passes on todysentery, and in some cases cannot be arrested by anymeans. These are the two great things we have to contendagainst. I trust this weather will not produce pneumonia,

pleuritis, or rheumatism, which we are free from as yet,though I think fever and catarrh is slightly on the in-crease, but nothing to what we might have expected. If wetake a regiment of about 1000 strong, I should say, by what Ihave seen and heard, that at least 150 are sick; most of thesenot doing any duty, and in hospital; a few attending as con-valescents, and also excused duty, but not in hospital; not tomention that of those doing duty, few of them are in perfectgood health, and are wrecks of what they formerly were.With all this they bear up with great fortitude, and are onlyanxious to try their luck at Sebastopol. Now is the time tosee the British soldier; his qualities are brought conspicuouslyforward, and indeed he is truly a fine fellow under any circum-stances, whether in health, disease, or dying from his wounds.They seem nearly all determined to do their duty, and undergohardships that people cannot imagine they could, and thateven Lord Raglan seems astonished at. Nothing like this hasoccurred before; no such trials; but neither their courage orardour is abated when brought before their foes. The Russians,no doubt, are as bad off as we are, if not worse, and they willbe still worse before the winter is over, on account of the dis-tance they have to carry their provisions. I will say but littleof the taking of Sebastopol. In a few days we open fire again,I hope with success-some doubt it; 300 guns playing on it forabout four days and nights must do some damage, and thencomes the storming; it will be a most awful affair, to say theleast of it. Scurvy has made its appearance lately in camp;great osdema of the extremities is common, following diarrhœa,and most probably the dysentery is of a scorbutic nature.Cholera hes left, I think ; I have not heard of a case lately. I

hope you will be able to make this letter out. My lingers arevery cold, as you may suppose, considering the snow is deep,and I am writing in my tent.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1855.

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.

Sir B. HALL, in moving for leave to bring in two Bills toalter and amend the Public Health Act and the NuisancesRemoval Act, which he should propose, he said, to refer to aselect committee, explained the state of the law under theexisting Acts, and the manner in which he proposed to amendit, accompanying his explanation with copious details. One ofthe provisions of the first-named Bill would empower localboards desirous of acquiring property within or without thelocality, for the purpose of bringing water or for drainageworks, to acquire the same without the necessity of comingbefore Parliament. The Bill would likewise provide that localboards should make annual reports, and send copies to everyratepayer, and that the General Board of Health should havepower to inspect towns, in order to see that money was pro-perly appropriated. By the second Bill he proposed to enlargethe powers of the local authorities to be established in everydistrict in the country, under whose constant sanitary inspec-tion the district would be placed. Sir Benjamin Hall explainedother enactments in this Bill relating to lodging-houses andoffensive trades, and to the non-performance of their duties bythe local authorities.After a few remarks by Mr. WILKINSON, Mr. THORNELY,Sir H. WILLOUGHBY, Lord EBRINGTON, Mr. PELLATT, and Mr.W. WILLIAMS, leave was given to bring in the Bills.

Medical News APOTHECARIES’ HALL.—Names of gentlemen who passed

their examination in the science and practice of Medicine, andreceived certificates to practise, on-

Thursday, January 18th, 1855.THORP, HENRY JOHN, 1Ialdon, Essex.WHITESIDE, JAMES HUTCHESON, Stockton-on-Tees.

THE COLLEGE STUDENTSHIP AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE.—Mr. John Lizars Lizars, the junior student in human andcomparative anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, hasjust resigned his appointment, and proceeds to the Crimea inmedical charge of the Lady Jocelyi2, one of the vessels belong-