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AMBULANCE
situation of these vary with circumstances and requirements, but according to regulations there is supposed to be one of 520 beds to each field force of 20,000 men. Each is fully equipped with beds, clothing, diets, &c., and the staff consists of 21 officers, 9 nursing sisters, 3 warrant officers, 25 non-commissioned officers, and about 120 privates. There are separate officers’ wards. In South Africa, owing to the impossibility of the Royal Army Medical Corps meeting all the requirements of the enormous force engaged, many of the officers attached were civil doctors, and the rank and file were often civilians drawn from the St John’s Ambulance Brigade and men
attached to each as administrator and organizer; and their personnel was made up of physicians, surgeons, nurses, dressers (who were medical students, and in some cases qualified surgeons), and servants. The numbers of course varied according to the size of the hospitals • in the case of the Portland hospital of 100 beds, for example, the staff comprised 41 individuals of the various grades. Lastly, our wounded man is transferred to a hospital ship. This is fitted up with comfortable swinging cots in airy wards, refrigerators, punkahs for hot weather, and every other luxury which modern science can supply. Each division of an army corps is supposed to have attached to it, when necessary, a hospital ship of 200 or 250 beds, which is provided with medical officers, nursing
Fig. 5.—Type of American Civil Ambulance (side and rear view). Fig. 4.—Type of English Civil Ambulance (side and rear view). temporarily enlisted from the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps. Many of the nursing sisters belonged to the Army Nursing Reserve, who are ordinarily employed in the civil hospitals, but liable to be drafted to the seat of war. In the South African war the patriotism and liberality of the British public furnished several general hospitals, perfectly equipped and officered by some of the most eminent members of the medical profession in the United Kingdom. Among others may be mentioned the Princess Christian, the Imperial Yeomanry (both field and general), the Langman, the Portland, the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh hospitals. In addition to the staff of these hospitals, several eminent surgeons, including Sir Wm. Mac Cormac and Sir Frederick (then Mr) Treves, went out as consultants. These civil hospitals were staffed entirely by civilians, except that an officer of the R.A.M.C. was
sisters, and the same staff and equipment as hospitals ashore. The medical staff of the regular army in the South African war in its later stage comprised the following officers :—1 surgeongeneral, 11 colonels, 41 lieut.-colonels, 183 majors, 71 captains, and 115 lieutenants—total 422 officers. The total strength of the Royal Army Medical Corps at that time was 905, and out of the balance there were 365 officers employed in other foreign stations, and only 118 at home. This shows how severely the war taxed the resources of the corps. Probably there were as many civil, colonial, and volunteer medical officers employed at the front as there were army medical officers. Of the rank and file of the Royal Army Medical Corps there were over 3000 men employed, and about the same number of St. John’s ambulance men, and other civilians and volunteers. To the army medical organization in war time is affiliated that of the Red Cross Society and other charitable associations, which during the South African war aided the medical services greatly by the provision of clothing, money, and numerous luxuries for the sick and wounded. The material and equipment for the bearer companies, field hospitals, &c., are stored in times of peace at the various headquarters stations in the United Kingdom, and on the orders for
