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Chapter_V11.
Cospital Visitors
The ocrasion for them, and how they did
theirmork. the nature
of the case could not ^ B performed by
have been
any provision of Government,-
MILLE
The characteristics of the two different classes
of Surgeous in Change of Hospitals. their relation
to the "Hospital risitors".
Chapter VII.
Hospital Visitors
Heisnork of a a kind which, from its very
nature, could not be performed ly Gov-
ernment, as Government.
- winter of 1862-3
Unapter УДД.
Hospital Visitors.
It was during think of
1862 and 1863-that "Cospitat Visiting" obtained
a name and place in our reliefservice. Atfirst
it had buttittle to do with the work which
was afterward committed
from it, ing of distributing supplies. But
for some time
atthis time it mas mainly devoted to its legit
imate duty of finding out and ministering
XX
to needs of mew in Hospital, similar to those
attended to in behalf of the meed invalids who arere
leave the Hos spital and
able to Come in person stown office of
Special Relief.-
There was a large class ofsoldiers, as
it proved oninvestigation still confined to hospital, but whe
wanted a friend and helper, in some one or
more of the twenty different directions, in theck
as they found themselves
^
for with
perplexities. These soldiers)
dethy Could therefore ment
to them.- Ocrasionally and uncestainly at
first, frequently and regularly afterward did
our Relief Agents pass through the hospitals,
Grard by ward, and try, to discover who mere in
trouble of any kind, and how they could
be he lped out of it.-
There mere men about to be discharged,
desiring to have relatives notified to meet them
rail-wad
ata quen junction on the may home mew too
feeble to make the journey alone, anxiously
or anibution
wondering m ho would take them iwa carriage
from the Hospital
and
to the station who would help them in and
out of the cars, and care for them by the may:
men with pay pers all made out, but unable
to go in person to collect their pay: men who
might obtain asickfurlough, if only they could
ge an order for transportation, or money topay
the fare home, or some additional clothing,
all the money they had received having long
before beewerpended, or sent to ther fanilies,
gritt no near prospect of the Paymasters coming.
There mere men who had loaned two months pay
to this officer, or to that fellows oldier nowin
thefield, which at the present junctions they
sorely needed:- men whose knapsacks with
clothes, had been left at Some distants
point when the battle began that gave them
their wounds;- and these knapsacks would
burely be lost unless soon looked up; and
they Contained often not moolen garments
only, but the letters ofa whole year from home,
and pictures of wife and children. There prere
mew who thought they had been harshly treated
by Government, and manted some one outside
the list of Government officials to whow they
2
could speakin Con onfidence of their real or imagin-
ary rrongs: men who chafed day and night
under the conviction that the Surgeon of the
Hospital could discharge them if he would, but
that he
held them there inhumanly or for selfish ends;
a conviction often removed by a few kind words
of explanation from one counted arealfriend!
Then Then again again
There mere men who had notheard from
home formonths, but who mere sure that in the
in
Post Office or the mail bag of the regiment
hundredso
(now 300 miles away) there was something
toward curing
which would do more to cure them, if only
they Could get it, than all the doctors w the
world," but to get it seemed almost a
hopeless task. -
men, 9say neth puch warts
as these,
(k)
some with
and
^ troubles sreightier still, and
which they would only whisper interest in the ear
of one who had time and to kneel by
them, or bend over them, in a may that inspired
Confidence and love.- These mewnere, scat-
tered all through the hospitals, - no one knowing
their thoughts, as ow narrow beds, they, who had
learned the lesson of Silence and long suffering,
lay uncomplaining.-
of the Commission
To such needs these "Hospital Visitors
Dought to minister, and did minsterd, to tha
most gratify ing result and those who
Came nearest to the soldiers in this relation,
testify to the fact that, in the course ofrends
ering this service many of the strongest and
most touching appeals to the heart mere made
by calls for help of which the need necessity was thus
alone
revealed
as the work ment ow, our
Agentsmould Carry with them certa in articles
from the Store house tonectindividual wants;
and through these Same agents, the Surgeons
also of Hospitals would make requisition
upon the Commission for Supplies to be dis-
often
tributed the many Ca under the eye, or by
the hand of the visitor. The beuefits derived
from this last named method merels eve-
in some sections of the country
dent, that at leugth there Aver Hospital
visitors mho mere appointed with reference
chiefly to their acting as agents of the
supply epartment of the Commitsion and so
to this branch of the work
what at first mas incidental became with
them a primary duty. -
of the Country, and or
in Certain ho spitals, the functions of Hospital
Visitor timed to the end to be strickly Cow-
fined too Special relief Service
pated, and some details of the knill be
found further od but in Washington and
Elsewhere it became largely all agency of the
Supply, Service (and as such avill of course be
treated of in the History of the Supply Department)
these agents
though Still rendereds important and willing
aid, and in investigating cases
of Special relief- asually gathering # daily
statement of the
the names and necessities of such Soldiers as
in the Hospitals, or wards severally visited
claimed our Care, and each night reporting
them to the Special Relief office to be acted repow the next
day. TH
The distinctive feature of the Hospital
visitor as well as the entire meature of his
power for blessing, hinge both upon the ove mord
-a personal
"personal "ministry. - He took Each maw by
the hand,r Sat down quietty by his bedside,
called him by
read
paul his name and his thoughts: became his
friend. He not merely bplied A needs,- the
the soldier
but the Soldia the talked with hin of his
home; mrote letters there, received letters in
return; sent melsages to parents and children,
answered for them anyious questions. He became
as one whose right hand held the grasp of
had
the while Soldier (who, learned to cling to it with love
and his left hand was reached out till
u was will cagerness vy the
and meantine
far off kindred; while through this same
friend was transmitted a marm current of life.
at
better than any when she,
and in this Connection tas mell as any)
Cwill perhips may 8
a
forhere, may Spresent the thought orhich at
some point Imustneeds give utterance to,
inasmuch as it keeps pressing in upon mefrom
various directions, as I recall part scenes,
and write these records. It is the thought,
which brings with it a glad kind of afsurance
that the great work after all 19 largest
reliefrendered through these agents of the
and most benficant in Lase its aggregate of
Commission, is Connected with the blessed
word it carried by its kindly ministries, to many
thousand families of Soldiers, telling them that
sons, brothers, and husbands, when sick
or nounaea, really received thal same port
of personal Care, which is the mystic healing
Rower ofhame
I rill dwell upon this a moment
because it involves a matter of no small inc-
portance connected with the question of the
possible the legitimate functions of a Volunteer
relief organization, Buf plementing the ordinary
graw attention to Notio
government agencies and upon it
also, because just here is what has beew phosen
as the point of attack by persons who would
fair influence bring proof the of intertional demoralizing
upon
Character of our special work, as concerns men
"are tobe suppored to
befords
who have enlisted for nothing else, than to
Carry ow a arar to fight
The whole tendency, or drift of military
institutions in themselves, is toward a demand
evinging you one receive, 00 of ene
largest amount of lighting force, as such. Soldiers
as individual men, and as sustaining other
than military relations [in secial life] are
more and morelost sight of They are con-
stantly Ling Compacted closer and closer into
a solidmass; until the peams, or dividing lines
themselves, may if possible be erased. In
then a
column moves on the enemy it is not
the thousand single muskets which are counted singly, 1
or mhich tell upon the to for, posing mall of living
flesh and living mill but the volley, madeup
indeed of the thousand parts, yet moving one
single smath of death, and bringing one single
echo from the grooded hills. IP Not the battle
as a war advances
field only, but in tent, and in hospital is there
this tendency, as a mar adv anced to lose sight
services as invertuals,
and
to regard them as component parts or ifsep-
their
arated by irounds or sicknefs, disistegrated
elements, of this solid something calledpurarmy,
and representing as its chiefest value, such or
such aw amount of available power.-
Northis tendency which is a natural,
apprinavoidable, may,a desirable tendency, within
its proper limits, and which gives thereal
muscle to the arm ofmar, at the same time
unless matched and guarded does pruguest-
ionably tea to & justify neglect wrong
Hnder its influence
and moreover in it its protical carries working attength to the
homes from which these mew have come
forth, a terribly sad feeling, with a measure
of truth for its basis, of the may in which
the soldiers are treated - as if in mass and
But
And it is just this
apurance of personal care and interest, which
more than any thing else, there is a craving
for in the heart of friends in behalf of the
sick and wounded And in the heart of the
sick or mounded soldier, himself, there is the same
desire IP
statement can be made
Graving This last caw say without
compromising one tittle, the noble spirit of
endurance and selfrenunciation which has
marked our army of volunteers, and which
has caused them to forget their own names,
and states, and kindred, knowing themselves
only as parts of a mall of stone, which
was to Stay the rolling raves of fire. — On
thefield of battle, or preparing for the cow-
flict, they refuse to hear the arice of mife
or Mun- eney
familiar word by which they are called, they
have but a single litte "soldier", and their
Commander alone at that time must speak
to them. And after battle too, on the bloody field
oras wounded they are
B borne away in ambulances, or transports, silently
they still are simply "Soldiers", in
aloutly
suffering, asking no question, giving no
name; bearing their terrible anguish, or
facing the near and sure approach of
death with a patience and a power which
almost break the heart of one beholding it.-
But hen these Samemen atleugth find
themselves upon beds in hospital, the arm
sword or
which would fight palsied, musket It bayonet
laid aside, then there is a return of theold
home feeling.) and although mith soldierly
pride and deternnnedmill it's at first re-
sisted, and the closed lips refuse to tell ft, still
itkeeps prefsing in upon the man, claiming
itsplace, and in fact opening the way for the
speediest healing of his rounds, or rally-
ing from disease
For if the history of this marteaches us
any one thing, it's this, that the Surgeon
who, with a given amount of skill carries
with him the largest measure oftender, humane
feeling,thereby couveying to his patient the
assurance of personal interest, has a misdow
in his insight, and a healing power in his
touch, Ensures which just that quality of heart alone
possesses. - My observation upon the
stops
success of various army Surgeons whom I
have followed more or lefs closely, and
a period of four years justified me in this
ungelified assertion. Charse The medical
History of the mar would hardly make this
a separate topic, Ipresume, for investigation.
it stands too near the border of the field on
which scientific men are but slonly planting
ground
their foot,tofind itsolid Land arzinhere
the subtter laws of the heart and the affections
reveal themselves, as the fellow morkers, and
needed coadjuters of the stermer and plainer
L Sterootyped
laws written out in learned books, the result
we areforied to
of long aud patient research. And yet #
believe that here is an importantfield of
intersting ble enquiry, and
involving grould spinith
Л
principles, which, if not generally
and essential, in the right understanding of
them, to the progress of Surgical and medical
knowledge, and its practical application.-
Its The Surgeons in our many hundred Field and
General Hospitals during this long arar,furnish
ed abundant and strongly contrasted examples
for this Study of the making of the principle
refered 4 Among them meremen full of
Scientific, skill, and at the same time full
to overflowing of tenderness, mhose personal
interest in their patients was as of a brother,
Their
and could not be disguised; muse sympathy
with suffering was keen, and the seemed
to derive the strength of nerve which made
their handisso steady, as it held the knife,
hose slightest touch was life pr death,
humane love and tenderness,
They seemed braced by it, through a deep
sense of the value to friends and home, of
the life that mas then under their hand-
braced by it to a cabmness which no mere
with any certainly have
native strength of nerve could positively
have ensured. Such men there were, and many
of them, among the surgeons of our army,
thank God ! And thanked and blessed they
have themselves been by thousands, whose faces
they have never Seen, and whose word will
never reach them.
On the other extreme among our
Surgeon's mere men, possessing, great skill, but
whom all other respects mere precisely
the Counterpart of those previously named.
every
Country could not hade spared them, but
somehow, # as I have plied t mithpell their
tan
shill), patients didnot seem to rally under Their
hands care. Their presence in a Hospital Drard,
brought a chill mith it, and drove back into
the sickman's londy heart, any thought of
fladness, or cheerful hope which had
timidly ventured forth, asking in its solitude
to meet the Eye ofa friend and thus somehow
it seemed as if nature purposely refused to
call out its hea ling powers, so delicate and
hidden in their working, to go as companions
to the skill of these cold men of science.
Some, yes,onary such there new.-But
one should not be anmindful of their
and
the country could wr have spared them. and it owesthen Thanks,
morth Hardworking Surgeons they often
month Lovers they meriof Science, but not
lovers of their felloweren. - Temperament,
and habit of mind did much, but habit
of heart II did more to make them what they
mere and they, be itnoted merethe men
also whotfurnished occasion for that im-
pression so general among soldiers and their
friends, yet so totally amfounded, that the
Surgeons of the army, as a whole, were
hard men, who looked on all below the
rank of an officer, as merely so much
anatomical study or for
animal life, as a subject forthe appli-
cation or inestigation of professional
knowledge
with this first class of Surgeons in
Convroluforesk, of the Sanitary Commission in
success in the treatment of their patients,
me took exampler and probably Hundy
mere me thereby led, ford more than otherwise me
Especially as "Hospital risitors",
should have been, to yield to that natural
instinct of theart, whichpromptone
to show Aimself the personal friend, and
Leper of any man in need, who is ask-
ing for Hathelp.- For in the case of
these Surgeons who thus made themselves
friends to the Soldiers individually, there
was no undue relaxing of proper army
discipline, nov mere the patients thereby
made any less hardy and Self-denying
soldiers, when they again answered to
the roll Call in the field.
Document source description
This item is a draft copy of Chapter VII of the "History of the Special Relief Service of the United States Sanitary Commission, 1861-1865," by Frederick N. Knapp, Special Relief Agent. [23]
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"ocrText": "K.\nCopied-\nChapter_V11.\nCospital Visitors\nThe ocrasion for them, and how they did\ntheirmork. the nature\nof the case could not ^ B performed by\nhave been\nany provision of Government,-\nMILLE\nThe characteristics of the two different classes\nof Surgeous in Change of Hospitals. their relation\nto the \"Hospital risitors\".\nChapter VII.\nHospital Visitors\nHeisnork of a a kind which, from its very\nnature, could not be performed ly Gov-\nernment, as Government.\n- winter of 1862-3\nUnapter УДД.\nHospital Visitors.\nIt was during think of\n1862 and 1863-that \"Cospitat Visiting\" obtained\na name and place in our reliefservice. Atfirst\nit had buttittle to do with the work which\nwas afterward committed\nfrom it, ing of distributing supplies. But\nfor some time\natthis time it mas mainly devoted to its legit\nimate duty of finding out and ministering\nXX\nto needs of mew in Hospital, similar to those\nattended to in behalf of the meed invalids who arere\nleave the Hos spital and\nable to Come in person stown office of\nSpecial Relief.-\nThere was a large class ofsoldiers, as\nit proved oninvestigation still confined to hospital, but whe\nwanted a friend and helper, in some one or\nmore of the twenty different directions, in theck\nas they found themselves\n^\nfor with\nperplexities. These soldiers)\ndethy Could therefore ment\nto them.- Ocrasionally and uncestainly at\nfirst, frequently and regularly afterward did\nour Relief Agents pass through the hospitals,\nGrard by ward, and try, to discover who mere in\ntrouble of any kind, and how they could\nbe he lped out of it.-\nThere mere men about to be discharged,\ndesiring to have relatives notified to meet them\nrail-wad\nata quen junction on the may home mew too\nfeeble to make the journey alone, anxiously\nor anibution\nwondering m ho would take them iwa carriage\nfrom the Hospital\nand\nto the station who would help them in and\nout of the cars, and care for them by the may:\nmen with pay pers all made out, but unable\nto go in person to collect their pay: men who\nmight obtain asickfurlough, if only they could\nge an order for transportation, or money topay\nthe fare home, or some additional clothing,\nall the money they had received having long\nbefore beewerpended, or sent to ther fanilies,\ngritt no near prospect of the Paymasters coming.\nThere mere men who had loaned two months pay\nto this officer, or to that fellows oldier nowin\nthefield, which at the present junctions they\nsorely needed:- men whose knapsacks with\nclothes, had been left at Some distants\npoint when the battle began that gave them\ntheir wounds;- and these knapsacks would\nburely be lost unless soon looked up; and\nthey Contained often not moolen garments\nonly, but the letters ofa whole year from home,\nand pictures of wife and children. There prere\nmew who thought they had been harshly treated\nby Government, and manted some one outside\nthe list of Government officials to whow they\n2\ncould speakin Con onfidence of their real or imagin-\nary rrongs: men who chafed day and night\nunder the conviction that the Surgeon of the\nHospital could discharge them if he would, but\nthat he\nheld them there inhumanly or for selfish ends;\na conviction often removed by a few kind words\nof explanation from one counted arealfriend!\nThen Then again again\nThere mere men who had notheard from\nhome formonths, but who mere sure that in the\nin\nPost Office or the mail bag of the regiment\nhundredso\n(now 300 miles away) there was something\ntoward curing\nwhich would do more to cure them, if only\nthey Could get it, than all the doctors w the\nworld,\" but to get it seemed almost a\nhopeless task. -\nmen, 9say neth puch warts\nas these,\n(k)\nsome with\nand\n^ troubles sreightier still, and\nwhich they would only whisper interest in the ear\nof one who had time and to kneel by\nthem, or bend over them, in a may that inspired\nConfidence and love.- These mewnere, scat-\ntered all through the hospitals, - no one knowing\ntheir thoughts, as ow narrow beds, they, who had\nlearned the lesson of Silence and long suffering,\nlay uncomplaining.-\nof the Commission\nTo such needs these \"Hospital Visitors\nDought to minister, and did minsterd, to tha\nmost gratify ing result and those who\nCame nearest to the soldiers in this relation,\ntestify to the fact that, in the course ofrends\nering this service many of the strongest and\nmost touching appeals to the heart mere made\nby calls for help of which the need necessity was thus\nalone\nrevealed\nas the work ment ow, our\nAgentsmould Carry with them certa in articles\nfrom the Store house tonectindividual wants;\nand through these Same agents, the Surgeons\nalso of Hospitals would make requisition\nupon the Commission for Supplies to be dis-\noften\ntributed the many Ca under the eye, or by\nthe hand of the visitor. The beuefits derived\nfrom this last named method merels eve-\nin some sections of the country\ndent, that at leugth there Aver Hospital\nvisitors mho mere appointed with reference\nchiefly to their acting as agents of the\nsupply epartment of the Commitsion and so\nto this branch of the work\nwhat at first mas incidental became with\nthem a primary duty. -\nof the Country, and or\nin Certain ho spitals, the functions of Hospital\nVisitor timed to the end to be strickly Cow-\nfined too Special relief Service\npated, and some details of the knill be\nfound further od but in Washington and\nElsewhere it became largely all agency of the\nSupply, Service (and as such avill of course be\ntreated of in the History of the Supply Department)\nthese agents\nthough Still rendereds important and willing\naid, and in investigating cases\nof Special relief- asually gathering # daily\nstatement of the\nthe names and necessities of such Soldiers as\nin the Hospitals, or wards severally visited\nclaimed our Care, and each night reporting\nthem to the Special Relief office to be acted repow the next\nday. TH\nThe distinctive feature of the Hospital\nvisitor as well as the entire meature of his\npower for blessing, hinge both upon the ove mord\n-a personal\n\"personal \"ministry. - He took Each maw by\nthe hand,r Sat down quietty by his bedside,\ncalled him by\nread\npaul his name and his thoughts: became his\nfriend. He not merely bplied A needs,- the\nthe soldier\nbut the Soldia the talked with hin of his\nhome; mrote letters there, received letters in\nreturn; sent melsages to parents and children,\nanswered for them anyious questions. He became\nas one whose right hand held the grasp of\nhad\nthe while Soldier (who, learned to cling to it with love\nand his left hand was reached out till\nu was will cagerness vy the\nand meantine\nfar off kindred; while through this same\nfriend was transmitted a marm current of life.\nat\nbetter than any when she,\nand in this Connection tas mell as any)\nCwill perhips may 8\na\nforhere, may Spresent the thought orhich at\nsome point Imustneeds give utterance to,\ninasmuch as it keeps pressing in upon mefrom\nvarious directions, as I recall part scenes,\nand write these records. It is the thought,\nwhich brings with it a glad kind of afsurance\nthat the great work after all 19 largest\nreliefrendered through these agents of the\nand most benficant in Lase its aggregate of\nCommission, is Connected with the blessed\nword it carried by its kindly ministries, to many\nthousand families of Soldiers, telling them that\nsons, brothers, and husbands, when sick\nor nounaea, really received thal same port\nof personal Care, which is the mystic healing\nRower ofhame\nI rill dwell upon this a moment\nbecause it involves a matter of no small inc-\nportance connected with the question of the\npossible the legitimate functions of a Volunteer\nrelief organization, Buf plementing the ordinary\ngraw attention to Notio\ngovernment agencies and upon it\nalso, because just here is what has beew phosen\nas the point of attack by persons who would\nfair influence bring proof the of intertional demoralizing\nupon\nCharacter of our special work, as concerns men\n\"are tobe suppored to\nbefords\nwho have enlisted for nothing else, than to\nCarry ow a arar to fight\nThe whole tendency, or drift of military\ninstitutions in themselves, is toward a demand\nevinging you one receive, 00 of ene\nlargest amount of lighting force, as such. Soldiers\nas individual men, and as sustaining other\nthan military relations [in secial life] are\nmore and morelost sight of They are con-\nstantly Ling Compacted closer and closer into\na solidmass; until the peams, or dividing lines\nthemselves, may if possible be erased. In\nthen a\ncolumn moves on the enemy it is not\nthe thousand single muskets which are counted singly, 1\nor mhich tell upon the to for, posing mall of living\nflesh and living mill but the volley, madeup\nindeed of the thousand parts, yet moving one\nsingle smath of death, and bringing one single\necho from the grooded hills. IP Not the battle\nas a war advances\nfield only, but in tent, and in hospital is there\nthis tendency, as a mar adv anced to lose sight\nservices as invertuals,\nand\nto regard them as component parts or ifsep-\ntheir\narated by irounds or sicknefs, disistegrated\nelements, of this solid something calledpurarmy,\nand representing as its chiefest value, such or\nsuch aw amount of available power.-\nNorthis tendency which is a natural,\napprinavoidable, may,a desirable tendency, within\nits proper limits, and which gives thereal\nmuscle to the arm ofmar, at the same time\nunless matched and guarded does pruguest-\nionably tea to & justify neglect wrong\nHnder its influence\nand moreover in it its protical carries working attength to the\nhomes from which these mew have come\nforth, a terribly sad feeling, with a measure\nof truth for its basis, of the may in which\nthe soldiers are treated - as if in mass and\nBut\nAnd it is just this\napurance of personal care and interest, which\nmore than any thing else, there is a craving\nfor in the heart of friends in behalf of the\nsick and wounded And in the heart of the\nsick or mounded soldier, himself, there is the same\ndesire IP\nstatement can be made\nGraving This last caw say without\ncompromising one tittle, the noble spirit of\nendurance and selfrenunciation which has\nmarked our army of volunteers, and which\nhas caused them to forget their own names,\nand states, and kindred, knowing themselves\nonly as parts of a mall of stone, which\nwas to Stay the rolling raves of fire. — On\nthefield of battle, or preparing for the cow-\nflict, they refuse to hear the arice of mife\nor Mun- eney\nfamiliar word by which they are called, they\nhave but a single litte \"soldier\", and their\nCommander alone at that time must speak\nto them. And after battle too, on the bloody field\noras wounded they are\nB borne away in ambulances, or transports, silently\nthey still are simply \"Soldiers\", in\naloutly\nsuffering, asking no question, giving no\nname; bearing their terrible anguish, or\nfacing the near and sure approach of\ndeath with a patience and a power which\nalmost break the heart of one beholding it.-\nBut hen these Samemen atleugth find\nthemselves upon beds in hospital, the arm\nsword or\nwhich would fight palsied, musket It bayonet\nlaid aside, then there is a return of theold\nhome feeling.) and although mith soldierly\npride and deternnnedmill it's at first re-\nsisted, and the closed lips refuse to tell ft, still\nitkeeps prefsing in upon the man, claiming\nitsplace, and in fact opening the way for the\nspeediest healing of his rounds, or rally-\ning from disease\nFor if the history of this marteaches us\nany one thing, it's this, that the Surgeon\nwho, with a given amount of skill carries\nwith him the largest measure oftender, humane\nfeeling,thereby couveying to his patient the\nassurance of personal interest, has a misdow\nin his insight, and a healing power in his\ntouch, Ensures which just that quality of heart alone\npossesses. - My observation upon the\nstops\nsuccess of various army Surgeons whom I\nhave followed more or lefs closely, and\na period of four years justified me in this\nungelified assertion. Charse The medical\nHistory of the mar would hardly make this\na separate topic, Ipresume, for investigation.\nit stands too near the border of the field on\nwhich scientific men are but slonly planting\nground\ntheir foot,tofind itsolid Land arzinhere\nthe subtter laws of the heart and the affections\nreveal themselves, as the fellow morkers, and\nneeded coadjuters of the stermer and plainer\nL Sterootyped\nlaws written out in learned books, the result\nwe areforied to\nof long aud patient research. And yet #\nbelieve that here is an importantfield of\nintersting ble enquiry, and\ninvolving grould spinith\nЛ\nprinciples, which, if not generally\nand essential, in the right understanding of\nthem, to the progress of Surgical and medical\nknowledge, and its practical application.-\nIts The Surgeons in our many hundred Field and\nGeneral Hospitals during this long arar,furnish\ned abundant and strongly contrasted examples\nfor this Study of the making of the principle\nrefered 4 Among them meremen full of\nScientific, skill, and at the same time full\nto overflowing of tenderness, mhose personal\ninterest in their patients was as of a brother,\nTheir\nand could not be disguised; muse sympathy\nwith suffering was keen, and the seemed\nto derive the strength of nerve which made\ntheir handisso steady, as it held the knife,\nhose slightest touch was life pr death,\nhumane love and tenderness,\nThey seemed braced by it, through a deep\nsense of the value to friends and home, of\nthe life that mas then under their hand-\nbraced by it to a cabmness which no mere\nwith any certainly have\nnative strength of nerve could positively\nhave ensured. Such men there were, and many\nof them, among the surgeons of our army,\nthank God ! And thanked and blessed they\nhave themselves been by thousands, whose faces\nthey have never Seen, and whose word will\nnever reach them.\nOn the other extreme among our\nSurgeon's mere men, possessing, great skill, but\nwhom all other respects mere precisely\nthe Counterpart of those previously named.\nevery\nCountry could not hade spared them, but\nsomehow, # as I have plied t mithpell their\ntan\nshill), patients didnot seem to rally under Their\nhands care. Their presence in a Hospital Drard,\nbrought a chill mith it, and drove back into\nthe sickman's londy heart, any thought of\nfladness, or cheerful hope which had\ntimidly ventured forth, asking in its solitude\nto meet the Eye ofa friend and thus somehow\nit seemed as if nature purposely refused to\ncall out its hea ling powers, so delicate and\nhidden in their working, to go as companions\nto the skill of these cold men of science.\nSome, yes,onary such there new.-But\none should not be anmindful of their\nand\nthe country could wr have spared them. and it owesthen Thanks,\nmorth Hardworking Surgeons they often\nmonth Lovers they meriof Science, but not\nlovers of their felloweren. - Temperament,\nand habit of mind did much, but habit\nof heart II did more to make them what they\nmere and they, be itnoted merethe men\nalso whotfurnished occasion for that im-\npression so general among soldiers and their\nfriends, yet so totally amfounded, that the\nSurgeons of the army, as a whole, were\nhard men, who looked on all below the\nrank of an officer, as merely so much\nanatomical study or for\nanimal life, as a subject forthe appli-\ncation or inestigation of professional\nknowledge\nwith this first class of Surgeons in\nConvroluforesk, of the Sanitary Commission in\nsuccess in the treatment of their patients,\nme took exampler and probably Hundy\nmere me thereby led, ford more than otherwise me\nEspecially as \"Hospital risitors\",\nshould have been, to yield to that natural\ninstinct of theart, whichpromptone\nto show Aimself the personal friend, and\nLeper of any man in need, who is ask-\ning for Hathelp.- For in the case of\nthese Surgeons who thus made themselves\nfriends to the Soldiers individually, there\nwas no undue relaxing of proper army\ndiscipline, nov mere the patients thereby\nmade any less hardy and Self-denying\nsoldiers, when they again answered to\nthe roll Call in the field."
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