which was, within three days of its appointment,
to set out for the seat of war, investigate,
state fully, and urge strongly, all matters
relating to the preservation of health
and life among the soldiery. They obtained
leave to take with them Mr. Newlands, who,
as Borough Engineer of Liverpool, had
acquired experience in working the oldest
local Sanitary Act in England; they took
with them, also, three inspectors; and
proceeded with all haste to the Crimea, where
they were joined soon afterwards by Dr.
Milroy.

At Scutari they found the great Barrack
Hospital, with lofty rooms and insufficient
windows, with corridors well-windowed, but
crowded with a double row of beds, and placed
in direct communication with a Turkish sewer
at the end of each; these sewers being loaded
cesspools opening above the level of the sea.
Certain winds blowing into the sewer mouths
forced the foul gases through the corridors.
Accordingly, a change of wind sometimes
caused an accession of fever cases, and the
aggravation of existing ailments. The wards
and corridors being both occupied by sick,
they could, in fact, be considered only as two
hospitals built back to back, with the foul
air in each intermingling by the doors. A
considerable part of this building was,
moreover, used as a dépôt, to the great risk of
health among the soldiers stationed there.
Though these and other faults were
manifest enough, the Barrack Hospital was
infinitely better than it had been; for there, as
elsewhere, the military and medical authorities
had begun to amend what was most
intolerable.

The Sanitary Commissioners ordered first,
a system of constant scavenging and cleansing:
secondly, the adoption of simple plans of
ventilation for the rooms and corridors: thirdly,
the ventilators, water-traps and tanks for
flushing the sewers opening into the corridors,
and constant ventilation across the end of
each corridor, to which the sewer was
attached. In the fourth place, they directed
that there should be only one row of beds
in a corridor, and that the allowance of
breathing space to each patient, exclusive
of ventilating shafts and window recesses,
should not be less than a thousand cubic
feet. They attended to water supply,
ordered a frequent use of lime-wash on the
walls, required all refuse to be instantly
removed out of the building, and advised
the speedy departure of all soldiers or
persons not necessary for the care and comfort
of the sick.

In this spirit, the Commissioners furnished
directions also for the improvement of
wholesomeness in other hospitals. In the General
Hospital they found air poisoned by the
sewerage. In the Palace Hospital, the harem
apartments were found poisoned by foul
exhalations caused by total want of drainage ; the
ball-room was more wholesome, but destitute
of ventilation. The Stable Hospital was so
foul that its use had to be discontinued. The
burial-ground for these Scutari hospitals
being limited in extent, officers were buried
singly ; and men, wrapped in sheets, were laid
side by side as closely as possible, twenty
together, within shallow graves. As matter
of health the fault was great, but we must
not omit to say, that English soldiers' burials
at Scutari and everywhere in the Crimea,
were, on the whole, ordered most decently.
All accounts tell of the tenderness shown by
British soldiers towards sick comrades ; of
reverent interment of the dead ; even in some
Crimean burial-grounds ; of a loving decoration
of the grave, by men of the regiments to
which they might belong. Health, nevertheless,
required the establishment of certain
rules ; that, where many were buried
together, each body should have a clear space
of twelve inches on each side of it ; that
there should be no burial of men over men ;
that all graves should be at least six feet
deep ; that peat charcoal, instead of lime,
should be laid over the bodies ; and that no
burial should take place during the heat of
the day, when it was least safe for the living
to assemble over bodies of the newly dead.
Afterwards, in the case of all burial-grounds
belonging to the British army, similar
requirements were enforced. The other
hospitals were in the same way cleansed and
reformed. That of Kulali, standing on damp
soil, was also placed over a basement, from
which fifty Turkish dung-heaps, and two
hundred Turkish cavalry horses, sent their
exhalations up. There were two hospital ships on
the Bosphorus, in which low typhoid fever
had broken out. Their bilge-water was foul ;
their ventilation was bad ; they were over-
crowded with men who had been long prisoners
to bed, in a low-ceiled, confined space , they
were not properly lime-washed. Instructions
were given for the remedy, as far as possible,
of these defects. Bilge-water was pumped
out, watched, deodorised, and often again
pumped. The ships were cleansed and lime-
washed ; a system of ventilation was
established ; the number of occupants was
reduced ; and they were made to consist only
of convalescents. The Royal Naval and
Marine Hospital at Therapia, consisted of a
Turkish private residence and a kiosk
belonging to the Sultan, partly used for
convalescents. The kiosk, situated in a fine
garden, was airy and wholesome. The
private residence had the defects usual in
Turkish houses ; and when used as a
hospital, became a fever-nest. Low typhoid
fever cases were bred, and prevailed through
all the rooms. Three of nine female nurses
were affected.

The Smyrna Hospital was a large Turkish
barrack, well placed over a clean bit of coast,
and exposed all day to the sea-breezes. It
was open on two sides; and, on the other two
sides, had the town of Smyrna coming close