Introductory lecture delivered at Netley on commencing the twentieth session of the Army Medical School, 1st April, 1870 / by T. Longmore.

  • Longmore, Sir Thomas, 1816-1895.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture delivered at Netley on commencing the twentieth session of the Army Medical School, 1st April, 1870 / by T. Longmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    purchase of these positions has not been officially recognized, still the fact of such bargains being made has always been tacitly assented to, like the over-regulation purchase of steps in the combatant ranks; and I hope that, in the change, due consideration may be shown to the circumstances of such officers. But it has been foreseen for a long time past, that the duration of the Regimental Medical System was approaching its termination. This system was almost a necessity when the British Army was scattered by regiments, and by portions of regiments, not only over Great Britain, but over all parts of her colonial empire. But since the plan has been to collect troops in camps and garrisons at home, to withdraw regiments and detachments from outlying dependencies abroad, and to concentrate them in defensible positions and places whence their combined military strength, in case of need, could be exerted in any given direction with most efficiency, no such necessity has been felt. Not only, indeed, has no necessity for the system as regards the medical service been felt, but it has been proved to be, under the new circumstances of the troops, even on home service, a source of waste of professional power, of useless multipli- cation of surgical equipment, and consequently of fruitless expense. In time of war the system has constantly broken down. In the early struggles of the Crimean War, while the Medical Officers of the French Army, by concerted efforts directed by central authority, were able to dispose ol their wounded with regularity and comparative speed, the dis- connected efforts of the Regimental Officers, and the limited number of the Medical Staff Officers, in the British service, led to great delays and difficulties. The Medical Officers of some regiments were overtasked with the number of wounded under their charge. The Medical Officers with other regiments were without any professional occupation at all, so far as the exigencies of the occasion were concerned. It was the same while the army was encamped before Sebastopol;—so that, instead of increasing the number ot