THE SOLDIER'S out a few dozens of wine or, in short, anything which may be useful for the wounded or dying, hundreds of whom are now around us, under this roof, filling up even the passages to the very rooms we occupy. Government is liberal, and for one moment I would not complain of their desire to meet all our wants, but, with such a number of wounded coming in from Sebastopol, it does appear absolutely impossible to meet the wants of those who are dying of dysentery and exhaustion ; out of four wards committed to my care, eleven men have dieci in the night, simply from exhaustion, which, humanly speaking, might have been stopped, could I have laid my hand at once on such nourishment as I knew they ought to have had. It is necessary to be as near the scene of war as we are to know the horrors which we have seen and heard of, and I knew not which sight is most heart-rending-to witness fine strong men and youths worn down by exhaustion and sinking under it, or others coming in fearfully wounded. The whole of yesterday was spent, first, in sewing the men's mattresses together, and then in washing them, and assisting the surgeons when we could, in dressing their ghastly wounds, and seeing the poor fellows made as easy as their cir- cumstances would admit of, after their five days' confinement on board ship, during which space their wounds were not dressed. Miss Nightingale, under whom we work, is well fitted in every way to fill her arduous post, the whole object of her life having 21
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=