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THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT WARRANT OF 1876.
101 source
and
along
its
course
to the
pipes
which convey it to
the temporary tanks, and to remedy this filters have been the made by the Royal Engineers’ department, in
which
water is made to pass through four layers of sand and animal charcoal, the effect of which has been to render it perfectly fit for use. The Armagh Militia will join in a few days, and when the Irish Militia arrive at Horsham the division will be
complete.
According to present arrangements, the three divisions of the 2nd Army Corps will assemble at Aldershot about the 20th, and march past on the 22nd. On the 24th and 25th the reserve forces will return to their homes.
Correspondence. "Audi altoram partem."
THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT WARRANT OF 1876. To the Editor
of
THE LANCET.
SIR- The Warrant for the Army Medical Department has reached India. May I say a few words about it. 1. In the first place no great change can occur in the department from this Warrant for ten years, and Heaven only knows what may occur in that time. In the past ten years we have had three Warrants-viz., 1867, 1873, 1876. Perhaps the next ten may be equally fertile. 2. The War Minister, by adopting a short-service system for the Army Medical Department, has placed himself very much in the power of the profession-that is, he will in ten years’ time have to appeal yearly for large supplies of men, who certainly will not come without attractions, and he will find it harder to recruit fresh men every year than to pay old officers a good sum for remaining in the service. Now he may want thirty men per year, then, with short service, he may require fifty ; and where are they to come from? Looking at it from a War Office point of view, I think even then the Warrant will be found to a mistake. 3. I desire to point out that before the abolition of purchase a subaltern in the combatant branches of the service could get .,81000 for retiring, even if he were a non-purchase man; the rule was 100 a year for each year’s service abroad. Are we then, professional men, to be sent adrift with this paltry sum, a sum given to a sabaltern who was often five or six years our junior in point of age ? 4. Officers of the Army Medical Department will on thus retiring at ten years’ service lose their claims for pensions to their widows and allowances to their children. This is an
important
matter.
5. Ten years’ army service quite unfits a man for civil practice in the majority of cases. I spent seven and a half years of my first ten years’ service abroad. India and the colonies unfit a man for turning to an English practice when he must be at least thirty-two years of age. Health is more or less shaken, and a man could not begin the uphill work of practice at that age. At thirty-two, if a man be worth his salt, he has made a good centre for work, and to try to do that when past thirty-two would be nonsense. Had Mr. Hardy proposed two classes of officersviz., one serving for five years, and the other, as at present, for twenty-five, I could imagine a young man coming into the army to pass by those earlier years; but ten years are a
deal too many.
6. It is most important to inquire how the new warrant will affect the young officers of the Department while serving in India. The .50 is wholly an English pay rate. When these young men come out here they will receive merely a subaltern’s Indian allowance in addition to the X250 per annum. This will be poor pay. In England .8250 a year with allowances is a liberal pay. In India such a sum will be absurdly small, because it is the relative rank allowances that are needed in India. They constitute the real bonne bouche of Indian service. Queen’s pay-viz., the English pay rate-will always be miserable in India unless supplemented by relative rank allowances. These young doctors, under the warrant of 1876, will be awfully sold
if they imagine thoir Indian pay-rate will be equally liberal with their home pay-rate ; it will be merely ..B250 per annum with the Indian allowances of a subaltern. This leads me to another paragraph. 7. The junior grades of the Department still rank only as subalterns. Why they should be junior to naval doctors and army chaplains, both of whom jlliu at the captain’s rank, I cannot understand. If naval doctors rank with army captains, why should not army doctors do so likewise. In this relative rank question very much important matter lies hid. Please tell the young doctors that relative rank in India and the Colonies means good pay. In India and the Colonies allowances are issufd in addition to the home pay, but they are all based on relative rank. If a surgeon ranks as lieutenant, he receives home pay plus Colonial allowance of a subaltern. If he ranks as captain he receives home This pay plus Indian or Colonial allowance of a captain. is most important. Now, a young doctor is very badly paid in India because he ranks only as a subaltern. If be had a captain’s rank he would be at least .8120 a year better off. He comes out to India now worse paid than a young civilian, or a Cooper’s-hill engineer. This is quite wrong. We become every year more valuable. Why then should we not have equal rank with the chaplains and the navy doctors? We all know military rank is depreciating in value daily, and to rank with a captain in the army today is of no more value than it was to rank with a subaltern a few years ago. The abolition of purchase and the development of the militia and volunteers are the causes of this gradual sinking. Again since 1871 ensigns have disappeared. We doctors in the old time came in at lieutenant’s rank; to-day all the young lads from Woolwich and Sandhurst are not ensigns as they were, but lieutenants. We have thus suffered by their being levelled up to lieutenant,’s rank; and this is another claim for our being pushed on to rank with captains, if not on joining, at least after a couple of years’ service. 8. I notice young doctors at Netley are to receive 5s. per day only. This is quite too little pay. Every young boy of nineteen-nay, even eighteen-who joins the combatant service is paid better than this; and remember he knows nothing, being merely a lad fresh from school. Five shillings a ray pay means getting not enough money to support one self at Netley, and that is quite wrong. It should be at least 10s. a day. At Netley the young doctors do a certain amount of military duty, and if they were not there the staff of commissioned medical officers would have to be increased to do the work. Remember that the War Office pays combatant officers liberally while they are learning their work at staff colleges, garrison institution classes, the long course of artillery at Shoeburyness, and at a number of other places of 1llstruction. We cost the State nothing of all this, and it presses hard on a young doctor to be underpaid while undergoing many expenses at Netley. In conolusion, I beg to draw your attention and the attention of the young doctors to the pay they will receive in India. It will be very bad, and they may reckon on spending many of the golden years of their life in this country, where good pay is almost the only possible compensation for hard work and exile. I am, Sir, yours, 1. V. R. C. India, 1876.
TREATMENT
OF
DIPHTHERIA.
of THE LANCET. SiR,-In your issue of July lst are two communications, one recommending the internal administration of chlorate of potash, the other the topic-,il application of carbolic acid and glycerine in the treatment of diphtheria. Will you allow me to state that for more than ten years I have been in the habit of treating all diphtheritic cases with both remedies, and hitherto with undeviating success. The chlorate I give acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and this, while exerting a powerful restorative influence on the system generally, is also, in all probability, of direct value as a cleansing wash to the affected throat as swallowed. The carbolic acid I use in the form of glycerine of carbolic acid, either in the form of gargle, spray, or by inhalation of its vapour, and its good ejects are almost invariably mani. fested within twenty-four hours in destroying all fetor and To the Editor
and
along
its
course
to the
pipes
which convey it to
the temporary tanks, and to remedy this filters have been the made by the Royal Engineers’ department, in
which
water is made to pass through four layers of sand and animal charcoal, the effect of which has been to render it perfectly fit for use. The Armagh Militia will join in a few days, and when the Irish Militia arrive at Horsham the division will be
complete.
According to present arrangements, the three divisions of the 2nd Army Corps will assemble at Aldershot about the 20th, and march past on the 22nd. On the 24th and 25th the reserve forces will return to their homes.
Correspondence. "Audi altoram partem."
THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT WARRANT OF 1876. To the Editor
of
THE LANCET.
SIR- The Warrant for the Army Medical Department has reached India. May I say a few words about it. 1. In the first place no great change can occur in the department from this Warrant for ten years, and Heaven only knows what may occur in that time. In the past ten years we have had three Warrants-viz., 1867, 1873, 1876. Perhaps the next ten may be equally fertile. 2. The War Minister, by adopting a short-service system for the Army Medical Department, has placed himself very much in the power of the profession-that is, he will in ten years’ time have to appeal yearly for large supplies of men, who certainly will not come without attractions, and he will find it harder to recruit fresh men every year than to pay old officers a good sum for remaining in the service. Now he may want thirty men per year, then, with short service, he may require fifty ; and where are they to come from? Looking at it from a War Office point of view, I think even then the Warrant will be found to a mistake. 3. I desire to point out that before the abolition of purchase a subaltern in the combatant branches of the service could get .,81000 for retiring, even if he were a non-purchase man; the rule was 100 a year for each year’s service abroad. Are we then, professional men, to be sent adrift with this paltry sum, a sum given to a sabaltern who was often five or six years our junior in point of age ? 4. Officers of the Army Medical Department will on thus retiring at ten years’ service lose their claims for pensions to their widows and allowances to their children. This is an
important
matter.
5. Ten years’ army service quite unfits a man for civil practice in the majority of cases. I spent seven and a half years of my first ten years’ service abroad. India and the colonies unfit a man for turning to an English practice when he must be at least thirty-two years of age. Health is more or less shaken, and a man could not begin the uphill work of practice at that age. At thirty-two, if a man be worth his salt, he has made a good centre for work, and to try to do that when past thirty-two would be nonsense. Had Mr. Hardy proposed two classes of officersviz., one serving for five years, and the other, as at present, for twenty-five, I could imagine a young man coming into the army to pass by those earlier years; but ten years are a
deal too many.
6. It is most important to inquire how the new warrant will affect the young officers of the Department while serving in India. The .50 is wholly an English pay rate. When these young men come out here they will receive merely a subaltern’s Indian allowance in addition to the X250 per annum. This will be poor pay. In England .8250 a year with allowances is a liberal pay. In India such a sum will be absurdly small, because it is the relative rank allowances that are needed in India. They constitute the real bonne bouche of Indian service. Queen’s pay-viz., the English pay rate-will always be miserable in India unless supplemented by relative rank allowances. These young doctors, under the warrant of 1876, will be awfully sold
if they imagine thoir Indian pay-rate will be equally liberal with their home pay-rate ; it will be merely ..B250 per annum with the Indian allowances of a subaltern. This leads me to another paragraph. 7. The junior grades of the Department still rank only as subalterns. Why they should be junior to naval doctors and army chaplains, both of whom jlliu at the captain’s rank, I cannot understand. If naval doctors rank with army captains, why should not army doctors do so likewise. In this relative rank question very much important matter lies hid. Please tell the young doctors that relative rank in India and the Colonies means good pay. In India and the Colonies allowances are issufd in addition to the home pay, but they are all based on relative rank. If a surgeon ranks as lieutenant, he receives home pay plus Colonial allowance of a subaltern. If he ranks as captain he receives home This pay plus Indian or Colonial allowance of a captain. is most important. Now, a young doctor is very badly paid in India because he ranks only as a subaltern. If be had a captain’s rank he would be at least .8120 a year better off. He comes out to India now worse paid than a young civilian, or a Cooper’s-hill engineer. This is quite wrong. We become every year more valuable. Why then should we not have equal rank with the chaplains and the navy doctors? We all know military rank is depreciating in value daily, and to rank with a captain in the army today is of no more value than it was to rank with a subaltern a few years ago. The abolition of purchase and the development of the militia and volunteers are the causes of this gradual sinking. Again since 1871 ensigns have disappeared. We doctors in the old time came in at lieutenant’s rank; to-day all the young lads from Woolwich and Sandhurst are not ensigns as they were, but lieutenants. We have thus suffered by their being levelled up to lieutenant,’s rank; and this is another claim for our being pushed on to rank with captains, if not on joining, at least after a couple of years’ service. 8. I notice young doctors at Netley are to receive 5s. per day only. This is quite too little pay. Every young boy of nineteen-nay, even eighteen-who joins the combatant service is paid better than this; and remember he knows nothing, being merely a lad fresh from school. Five shillings a ray pay means getting not enough money to support one self at Netley, and that is quite wrong. It should be at least 10s. a day. At Netley the young doctors do a certain amount of military duty, and if they were not there the staff of commissioned medical officers would have to be increased to do the work. Remember that the War Office pays combatant officers liberally while they are learning their work at staff colleges, garrison institution classes, the long course of artillery at Shoeburyness, and at a number of other places of 1llstruction. We cost the State nothing of all this, and it presses hard on a young doctor to be underpaid while undergoing many expenses at Netley. In conolusion, I beg to draw your attention and the attention of the young doctors to the pay they will receive in India. It will be very bad, and they may reckon on spending many of the golden years of their life in this country, where good pay is almost the only possible compensation for hard work and exile. I am, Sir, yours, 1. V. R. C. India, 1876.
TREATMENT
OF
DIPHTHERIA.
of THE LANCET. SiR,-In your issue of July lst are two communications, one recommending the internal administration of chlorate of potash, the other the topic-,il application of carbolic acid and glycerine in the treatment of diphtheria. Will you allow me to state that for more than ten years I have been in the habit of treating all diphtheritic cases with both remedies, and hitherto with undeviating success. The chlorate I give acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and this, while exerting a powerful restorative influence on the system generally, is also, in all probability, of direct value as a cleansing wash to the affected throat as swallowed. The carbolic acid I use in the form of glycerine of carbolic acid, either in the form of gargle, spray, or by inhalation of its vapour, and its good ejects are almost invariably mani. fested within twenty-four hours in destroying all fetor and To the Editor