This city, so charming and picturesque, is transformed, not into a large temporary shelter for the wounded like Castiglione, but into a vast hospital. Its two cathedrals, its palaces, its churches, its monasteries, its colleges, its barracks, in a word all its buildings receive the victims of Solferino.
Fifteen thousand beds, of some sort, have been improvised in forty-eight hours. The inhabitants have done more than was ever done before under similar circumstances.
In the centre of the city the old basilica, "il Duomo recchio," contains a thousand wounded. The people come to them in crowds, women of every class bring them quantities of oranges, jellies, biscuits and delicacies. The humblest widow or the poorest little old woman believes that she must present her tribute of sympathy and her modest offering.
Similar scenes occur in the new cathedral, a magnificent temple of white marble, where the wounded are taken by the hundreds. It is the same in forty other buildings, churches or hospitals which contain nearly twenty thousand wounded.
The municipality of Brescia understood the extraordinary duty imposed upon it by such grave circumstances. With a permanent existence it associates with itself the best men of the town, who bring to it eager co-operation.
In opening a monastery, a school, a church, the municipality created, in a few hours, as if by magic, hospitals with hundreds of beds, vast kitchens, improvised laundries for linen and everything that would be necessary.
These measures were taken with so much courage that, after a few days, one was able to admire the good order and regular management of these hurriedly arranged hospitals. The population of Brescia, which was forty thousand, was suddenly almost doubled by the great number of wounded and sick. The physicians, numbering one hundred and forty, displayed great self-devotion during the whole duration of their fatiguing service. They were helped by the medical students and some volunteers. Aid committees being organized, a special commission was appointed to receive donations of bedding, linen and provisions of all kinds; another commission administered the depot or central store house.
In the large rooms of the hospitals, the officers are ordinarily separated from the soldiers. The Austrians are not mixed with the allies. The series of beds are all alike, on the shelf above the bed of each soldier, his uniform and military cap indicate to which branch of the service he belongs.