Florence Nightingale

“ Sidney Herbert presided over that commission, and embodied its results in a masterly report, shoeing, for the first time, the great and unnecessary mortality to which the army was at all times subject, the diseases occasioning it, their removable causes, and the administrative reforms required to arrest this awful loss of life and efficiency. At that time, the death rate among soldiers from consumption and tubercular diseases alone (the monstrous products of breathing foul air) , exceeded the total death from all causes among the civil population of the corresponding ages. ”

“ Lord Herbert also named a committee to re-organize the army hospital corps. In former times there were no proper attendants on the sick. For regimental hospitals a steady man was appointed hospital sergeant, and two or three soldiers, fit for nothing else, were sent into the hospital, to be under the orders of the medical officer; who, if he were fortunate enough to find one man fit to nurse a patient, was sure to lose him by his being recalled "to duty;" sometimes, indeed, men were mounted in rotation over sick in hospital as they would mount guard over a store. ”

“ The country will support the cherished scheme of its dead statesman.
This is a short sketch of the labours and successes of Lord Herbert's last brief administration. The lesson which these reforms teach is, that the real foundation of War Office efficiency is to be laid in the efficient working of each department—in simplifying procedure, abolishing all divided responsibility, clearly defining the duties of each officer—in giving direct responsibility to each head of a department—and, lastly, in placing all the departmental heads in direct communication with the Secretary of State. ”

“ No one thinks of a secretary of state, e. g., as the head of an office which has in its hands the lives and morals of men. But Sidney Herbert, although his passion, his hereditary occupation, to which he was born and bred, was politics, yet made his administrative labours greater, set his administrative object higher, recoiled from none of its dry fatigues, and attained its highest usefulness. What has been well-advised to a rising statesman, he performed. He did not sink in politics the powers which were meant for mankind.
Army Medical Officers' Warrant, 1858. ”

“ The barrack kitchens have been completely remodelled; the wasteful cooking apparatus, only fit for boiling, has been replaced by improved and economical cooking ranges for roasting, &c., so that the men may now have the change of cookery required for health, instead of the eternal soup and boiled beef. Gas has been introduced into many barracks, instead of the couple of "dips," which only made the barrack room look darker still, and by the light of which it was impossible for the men to read, or to pursue any occupation except smoking. ”

“ The department, charged with spending money on buildings to keep men healthy, knew little about the principles of healthy construction, such knowledge not having been required of them.
The result of the labours of the committee, it is expected, will be a better and more economical organization, a proper training in the principles of sanitary works, and a total change in the sanitary construction of our future military buildings. ”

“ They can do these things both for the civilian and the soldier. But for the soldier they can do more; and it is this which the committee on soldiers' day-rooms was called to consider by Lord Herbert.
They have shown that the men's barracks can be made more of a home—can be better provided with libraries and reading-rooms; that separate rooms can be attached to barracks where men can meet their comrades, sit with them, talk with them, have their newspaper and their coffee, if they want it, play innocent games, and write letters ”

“ Not that nothing has been done in the way of direct teaching to counteract the evil; but, all the while, the immoral agencies or temptations by which the man is surrounded, have been left untouched; while no counteracting agencies of a moral kind have been provided to cope with these. ”

“ In civil life at home, it is supposed inconsistent with individual liberty to put down bad places of resort, and to prevent open temptations to profligacy; while, in certain continental states, it is not supposed against liberty or morals to make prostitution as little disagreeable as possible—viz., by "regulating" it, to avert the consequences of this vice, leaving all the temptations just as they were. ”

“ The sub-commission drew up an admirable scheme; and the school at Chatham was opened by Sidney Herbert in person, in 1860. Already its results have been most satisfactory. A large number of men of high attainments have been sent from it into the army; and we may confidently expect a lower sick rate and death rate (especially on foreign stations and on field service) as one of its results, as well as higher hospital efficiency. ”

“ Lord Herbert issued in 1861 a new purveyor's code and regulations, re-organizing the department in accordance with the views expressed by himself, as Chairman of the Royal Commission. The regulations now define with precision the duties of each class of purveyor's officers, together with their relation to the army medical department. They provide all necessaries and comforts for men in hospital (both in the field and at home) on fixed scales ”

“ New Code of Regulations for Sanitary Service of Army, 1857-9 The second sub-commission was appointed for re-organizing the New Code of army medical department, and for framing a code of regulations for Regulations the hospital and sanitary service of the army. This commission found that, according to existing practice, no provision was made for systematically caring for the soldier's health, but only for his sickness. The chief recognised function of the army medical officer was attending men in hospital ”