Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/178

134 THE AVINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, nothiug in the tfiioi' of their instructions that . would make tlicni lay it aside to become, as it were, the creators of a hospital system vast enough for the wants of our army. Dr Menzies himself (the superintendent and chief) committed the mistake of allowing Idmself to be over- whelmed with work, such as that of ccmsulting in difficult cases, performing with his own hand the gravest of the surgical operations, and more- over invaliding men, holding l)oards, making monthly and quarterly returns, and daily and weekly reports, and it was hardly fair to ex- pect that whilst thus multifariously engaged, he would also prove able to organise, to maintain and to govern establishments which were not only complex and vast, but continually needing enlargement. He disclosed no such power.(-^^) Neither he nor the other medical officers, nor even, indeed, Major Sillery could apparently receive the conviction that for all proper hospital purposes, they might use and use freely the public treasure of England.(2^) 111 salaried, ill treated by the State, schooled down into habits of resignation, and bending under a load of professional work which they performed with a generous zeal, the medical officers acted as though there should be no discontent — as though not only on behalf of themselves, Init also on behalf of their patients, they ought to accept all the miseries which crowded in on the hos- pitals as dispensations resulting from war — dispensations to be borne with that silent, that soldierly fortitude which disdains the resource