HOSPITALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 66

HOSPITALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

(“N.Z. Times,” January 29.)

Just as the latest cf our contingents is leaving, it is pleasant to remember that the Hospital Commission has exonerated the authorities in Africa from the charges of Mr Burdott- Coutts. The charges were made with dramatic rashness, they were adhered to with a tenacity worthy of a better cause, and they have new been scattered to the winds. Dr Gctian Doyle, in a speech he delivered on a recent occasion to the Society of Authors at a dinner given, to him on his return from South Africa, put the case very well with reference to the main charge, of overcrowding. Therd was, said the direct doctor, but cue field hospital at the front, and it was alone for a geographical reason viz., because no other could ba got so far to the front in the tim®. It was also true that something like seven times more men "were accommodated there than the place was designed for. But what was the doctor in charge to do? There were the cases, urgent, a lingering death imminent. Were they to be referred to the next hospital, or taken in? To his honour the officer surgeon in charge (Surgeon-General Wilson) took them in and attended to them. Dr Conan Doyle mentioned a further

fact which is comforting to those who are in danger of requiring hospital treatment in Africa. It was that whenever a complaint was made tc. the surgeon in charge by any one, no matter who, it had instant attention, ivir Burdett-Oou tts appears to have regarded South Africa as a* small, thickly-populated city in a normal state of health, with a dozen hospitals well endowed with everything but patients- That the medical men did as well as they did under conditions at the opposite extreme is to their undying credit. That the medical profession of Great Britain and the colonies did net spare itself in the cause of duty is shown by the honourable roll of eminent medical volunteers headed by the names of Professor Jones, Sir W. Stckes and Professor Hughes, who left fame and lucrative practice to help the wounded at the front. The three gentlemen named died of enteric fever, and deserve to be numbered with the most illustrious dead of the Boer war. After all the experi-

ence accumulated, there can be no further danger of failure at the front, either in the matter of hospital accommodation or lack of sympathetic medical skill. It is, as we have said, a pleasant reflection in our Sixth Contingent’s departing hour.