Page:Army sanitary administration.djvu/15

This page has been validated.
And its Reform under the late Lord Herbert.
11

himself to the task of saving life—who ever took the trouble to master a difficult subject so wisely and so well, as to be able himself, and to show the way to others, to husband the resources of this country, in which human life is of more value than in any other—of more value than any thing else.

To the army, in the person of Sir John Pringle, is due the credit of first having recognised the real, ever-operating effects of physical laws on human health and life. To the army, Sidney Herbert has, a century later, bequeathed the administrative means of applying those laws, so as to mitigate or to prevent the very diseases which previous administrators ignorantly supposed inseparable from the soldier's occupations.

The results cannot fail to re-act on the whole progress of sanitary reform in civil life. Let us hope that the great lesson which has been taught, will have its weight with those charged with the duty of protecting the public health.


M'CORQUODALE AND CO., PRINTERS, LONDON—WORKS, NEWTON.