The best medicine that the sinking forces could have was the news that they were going to meet the enemy. It is well that they had it; for no medicines nor medical comforts were sent out from England from May 27th to September 20th. The probable need had been miscalculated; and there was no end to the wonder where all the good things could have gone to, though the sick were in September 11,000 instead of the 2000 which had been reckoned on. What could have become of the opium and the brandy and the arrow-root, was a sore puzzle to those who had been completely deceived as to the important considerations of numbers and quantities. We shall see hereafter how defective the statistics of disease, and indeed all statistics, were, and how much depends on a department which could not then be said to exist. At present, however, we have not done with the subject of the need of concert and communication between the military and the medical officers, and between the medical officers themselves.

Want of Concert. — It seems to have been during the abode in Bulgaria that the medical officers began to apprehend that they must take charge of the health, as well as the sickness of the troops. There was not yet any regular inquisition as to the quality of food, or interference as to lodging and its site. This was nobody's business; and therefore it was not done.