To the question-do you experience any difficulty in finding surgeons to serve in the army either by summoning those from half-pay, or by new appointments? The Director General answered :-"I have no difficulty in finding well-qualified gentlemen, but I have prepared a statement of the difficulties which I find in carrying on the service." The difficulties set forth are:-the slowness of promotion, and 1st. That a gentleman, who, after completing an expensive medical education is about to decide whether he will enter the medical department of the army, or pursue his profession in civil life as a physician or surgeon, on looking into the regulations, will observe that after a service of five years he may obtain a step of promotion to regimental surgeon, that in two years more he may be a staff surgeon, in three more an assistant inspector of hospitals, in two more a deputy inspector, and in three more he may obtain the rank of inspector general of hospitals, so that at 39 years of age (24 being the average at which medical officers enter the service) he may attain the highest rank in the medical department of the army." How desirable soever that, for the good of the state and of the service, these rules should be acted up to, the Director General has no difficulty in shewing, statistically, how differently this inviting prospect turns out, to the disappointment and chagrin of individuals, no less than to the injury of the service, which, in consequence of the slowness of promotion amongst the assistants, "is languidly carried on."

2ndly. That, though old officers may be fit for the discharge of light duty at home, and in some of the more healthy stations, yet, in such service as that of North America at present, or tropical climates, and almost all foreign stations, they are inadequate to the duties: many of them are valuable officers with much service, discharging the duties entrusted to them to the best of their ability, but they cannot be considered as effective officers.

3rd. That this stagnation in advancement operates most injuriously in the cases of officers to be selected for the duties of superintendence on foreign stations, where active and able officers are required.

4th. That even the district surgeons at home, not to speak of the other staff officers on the full and half-pay, are old, with constitutions much impaired by previous long service in various climates, and are by no means fit again to embark for foreign service; and this, though they are admitted to be men of intelligence, judgment, and discretion.

5th. That from a list of staff officers of the ages of 61, 64 and 65, exhibiting the actual ages of 147 staff officers on the half-pay, the Director General could not, if called on by the General Commanding in Chief, select one from the list equal to the duties of active superintendence on a foreign station. The same authority adds:-I need not to this Board dilate at any length on the important duties which devolve on superintending officers on foreign stations, and the special qualifications required of an officer for those duties; it is sufficient to say that they ought to be active as well as able officers, with experience of service.

6th. That as to the regimental surgeons in a period of peace, particularly on foreign stations, as in India and in the West Indies, the only severe duty falls on the medical officer. In tropical and unhealthy climates, the duties of the medical officers are at all times heavy and unremitting, more particularly so from the repeated reduction in their number on every station;

the consequence is, that annually, numbers of them return to this country in broken-down health, and the mortality is considerable, yet it is from these classes, as before observed, that the higher ranks of the department are to be filled up.

7th. That extreme hardship exists, in the reduction in the half-pay of each class of officers, who are so placed on half-pay on any other account than by reduction of establishment, as it bears very hard on those officers who have through great zeal and exertions, particularly in unhealthy climates, been compelled, perhaps contrary to their wishes, on the proceedings of a Board appointed to enquire into their state of health, to retire. The hardship is certainly much greater to the officer who is compelled to retire on half-pay on account of broken-down health by exertions in the service, than to the officer who is temporarily placed upon half-pay on account of reduction of establishment. În truth, the restriction of the larger half-pay to those officers only who have retired on account of reduction of establishment amounts nearly to the abolition of the larger half-pay rate, for the number of such now is almost nil.

8th. That the staff assistant surgeon is often placed in great difficulty by having no servant allowed him, and it is consequently submitted that, if he be not permitted to employ a soldier as a servant, in the same manner as the regimental assistant surgeon, an allowance be granted to him in lieu of it. 9th. That hardships attend the situation of staff surgeon, such as already remarked in the report of the Commissioners.

10th. That at the late occasion of the coronation, when the navy and army obtained promotion in all the higher ranks, the medical officers of the army were passed over. They felt this the more on seeing that the civil department of the army, the commissariat, partook of this promotion, as likewise the medical officers of the navy. Had the promotion been extended to the medical officers of the army, by providing for some old officers as in the military departments, an opportunity would have offered of bringing forward some younger and active officers more equal to the duties abroad. The promotion granted had no doubt its cheering effects on the zeal and exertions of the officers of the commissariat department, and medical officers of the navy. The exclusion of the medical officers of the army was most mortifying to them, as they felt, and I believe justly, that they had not less faithfully and zealously discharged their duties than their brother officers of the other departments of the service.

11th. That the officers of the medical department should be allowed the same prospect of promotion with the other officers of the army, military and civil, as the Director General feels confident such prospects alone can keep up the efficiency of the department, particularly in foreign and unhealthy climates, where so much is expected from them, and where the efficiency of any force so much depends upon their zeal and exertions; and the Director General feels warranted in offering his humble but decided testimony to the advantage that would accrue to the service of the public, by showing to the whole department, by some general and liberal act of favour, that in a period of peace their services were estimated by the Government of not less value than in the period of war, when he, the Director General, was proud to say their services received repeatedly the most gratifying public approbation, followed by promotion.

Such are some of the difficulties experienced by Sir James M'Grigor "in carrying on the service." It will be perceived that they consist principally in acts of neglect and injustice, inflicted on those under his orders, by the government of the country. We have no right to expect that men will go eagerly to work in carrying on any service while smarting under disabilities, slights, and injuries; and, having the good of the state, of the soldier, and of the department warmly at heart, the Director General anxiously desired to secure the good will, and, by consequence, the best energies of those under his orders, by procuring for them something like an equality of honour and reward with their military brethren, to whom he felt they stood in no respect inferior, either in zeal, usefulness, or talent. But we must now turn to Mr. Guthrie, who likewise urged the same subjects on the Commissioners, with great energy and truth. Mr. Guthrie considers: :-

1st. That the refusal of promotion by brevet, on the two last occasions, is considered by the medical department an unkindness which they consider to be undeserved, and which it is believed cannot be maintained on fair investigation, with justice either to the individuals or to the public.

2nd. That, though of late the promotion and allowances of the officers of the department have been settled by Sir Henry Hardinge in a fair and reasonable manner, still the questions of widows' pension and prize money are in the same unequal state as before.

3rd. That, in order to understand the subject of promotion as bearing on the utility of the department, it is proper to revert to the objects for which it was formed, and to compare its present with its former state.

The objects of a medical department ought to be attained in the great advantages the sick and wounded may derive from the services of its officers, and the public from the improvements they may make in their profession; but, if we look back to former periods, it will be found that these objects were in a great measure overlooked, or made subservient to the wishes and interests of individuals.

Staff physicians and surgeons were appointed without having served a single day. They were taken from the universities or hospitals to learn their profession at the expense and great inconvenience of the unfortunate soldiers committed to their care. Placed at once, from their appointments, in situations of trust, they soon, if they remained in the service, claimed and obtained others: and thus, gentlemen who had little knowledge of the habits, of the duties of a soldier, of the composition of an army, or of anything else belonging to it, were to be the advisers of a general commanding in chief, who, in the field, had rather to teach them their duty than to receive their assistance. Sickness and loss of life, from their inexperience as well as from disease itself, soon rendered an army inefficient, and diminished its numbers more effectually than the enemy. It would be too personal to allude to gentlemen who, after a lapse of nearly half a century, receive large half-pay for little duty or service.

4th. That, whilst the army received little advantage from the services of those officers, the profession at large and the country benefited nothing. They did little or no work, made no improvement, and slighted their hardworking brethren, who had no interest to aid in their advancement. If the annals of surgery be consulted, no records will, I believe, be found of

improvements made during the campaigns in the American war, nor in those of Holland, nor in Flanders, nor even at the Helder; and the contempt of the surgeons in civil life was not unfairly bestowed on their negligent military brethren. The fault was not alone theirs, but of the higher authorities, who either denied them the encouragement, or bestowed it wantonly or carelessly on individuals who had more or less private influence.

5th. That, during the Peninsular war, the hardships and sufferings of the medical officers became so great, that the government could not find men qualified to serve in the junior ranks who would go to that army. It would naturally be supposed that the course to be pursued in such emergency would have been to remove the grievances and defects complained of, or to have increased the rewards. A different plan was, however, adopted; and, as competent or commissioned officers could not be found willing to serve, it was thought right to send incompetent men as warrant officers, hired for the occasion, in order to make up in quantity for deficiency in quality. I have elsewhere pointed out the destruction of human life committed by one of these persons, under this authority; and many others did the same, without, however, any real blame attaching to them, for it was known to those who sent them that they were for the most part ignorant of the profession of physic or surgery.

6th. That there were, however, in that army, many officers who did their duty well, and who, whilst their military brethren raised its renown to the highest pitch of reputation and character army ever attained, formed for it also a surgical reputation which has not been excelled by that of any nation in Europe. They have left precepts and records which have been since followed and tried on several of the same fields in Spain, with the greatest advantage. They have the happiness of knowing that they have been the means of preventing and of alleviating much human suffering and misery, of saving great numbers of lives, and of originating one half of the improvements which took place in surgery during that eventful period.

7th. That many of these officers, who have served on full-pay nearly ever since that time, have nevertheless the misfortune to find that they alone of the whole army have latterly been overlooked and considered unworthy of any marks of approbation, and the additional mortification of seeing that this neglect has not been applied to their contemporaries in foreign armies, nor to themselves when employed in civil service, nor to their brethren in civil life.

8th. That it is considered right and proper, and worthy of a great country, as it assuredly is, to reward the exertions and energies of sailors and soldiers by promotion, by honors, and by pensions, long after the time when these exertions and these energies have been called forth; and it is honourably due in grateful and just remembrance of the services. It is only to the surgeons of the army that promotion or honors, or pensions granted in a similar manner and for similar services, are considered unnecessary, and are absolutely refused.

9th. That, when worn out by long service, they are allowed to retire on a reasonable allowance, like a private soldier, but without anything, even as in his case, which can distinguish the best and the most scientific from

the worst and most negligent officers in the service. The medical officers in the army may then be said to be governed at present by the system of punishments rather than of rewards-a mode of proceeding that has always been unsatisfactory to all parties, has usually failed, and in the present day has been frequently reprobated by many enlightened men.

10th. That it is very humbly submitted that, to preserve to the service a continuation of that scientific and practical improvement which has been so remarkable since the commencement of the last war, when compared with that which preceded it, promotion in the medical department should take place in a manner similar, or nearly similar, to that in which it is granted to the army at large, by fixed and not by arbitrary rules; and that, as medical men are human beings, subjected to the same influences, feelings, and passions as other men, they should have held out to them, at all times, the same or similar inducements to good conduct, to exertion, and to emulation in their profession, as are found, or are supposed to be necessary or proper for the officers of the army at large.

Such are, almost ad verbum, the sentiments placed on record by Sir James M'Grigor and Mr. Guthrie.

When required to state any plan which may have occurred to him with a view to relieve the grievances complained of, Mr. Guthrie states that the first grievance demanding serious consideration is, the slowness of promotion. He would recommend that no assistant surgeon be allowed halfpay till he had been seven years in the service ;-that after five years' service he should be allowed a gratuity of one year's pay, and of two years' pay in event of his remaining near seven years in the service: that, in event of his retiring from ill health, he should have a half-pay of four shillings; but, if retiring on reduction, or from other authorized cause, a half-pay of three shillings should be allowed after seven years' service :that an assistant surgeon should not be allowed to serve as such beyond twelve years, or fourteen years, under any circumstances:-that, after fourteen years' service he should have the unqualified right to retire permanently with the rank of unattached regimental surgeon, and the half-pay of six shillings, or seven shillings a day; because, if, between 14 and 20 years, he has not been promoted to the rank of surgeon, it must be from some defect of character, and therefore it would be advisable to part with him kindly and considerately, so as to prevent his being a clog on promotion: -that, if such an officer were allowed to remain in the service up to 30 years, his half-pay would amount to 15s. a sum much beyond what he is worth: that, in regard to regimental surgeons, who are now permitted to retire after 25 years on 11s. 6d. and after 30 years on 15s. per diem, the regulation be altered, so as to allow the latter half-pay, to 25 years' service, seeing that an officer of 30 years standing must, comparatively speaking, be an inefficient officer, averaging 54 years of age:-that by such an alteration in the rules the public would neither gain nor lose much,

"Now the difference between 7s. and 15s. is a great deal more than he is worth, if he is not equal to all kinds of duty in every climate, and consequently the public will do well to part with him after twenty years of service at 78. a day."