A very short comparison will here be made between the methods of Female Nursing in the Military Hospitals of
- Russia,
- England,
- France, and
- Sardinia,
as exemplified in the last War.
French and Sardinian Hospital Service.
To do this, a sketch must be partly repeated, which has been already given, of the organic difference between the Hospital Service of each nation.
The essential characteristic of the French is, the importance given in the field to the Divisional Hospital Service over the Regimental.
The Regimental Medical Service treats only those ephemeral cases which are to be exempted from duty for a day or two. Cases of wounds or disease likely to last for a term of weeks are sent to the Divisional Ambulance in the field; those, where disease may possibly last for months, to the General Hospitals at the base of operations.
The Medical Service of the Sardinians closely resembles the above in its formation. In the late War, their General Ambulances were at Balaklava; their General Hospitals at Jeni Koi on the Bosphorus. They had no Divisional or Regimental Hospitals.
English.
In our Army, as is well known, the Regiment establishes its Regimental Hospital wherever it goes. Theoretically, it is exclusively a Regimental system of Hospitals; however much, practically, it breaks down.