SCUTARI, _January 4_.
During the past week 1,900 sick have been brought down from the Crimea.
A few cases of wounded men occur among them, but the vast majority are
dysenteric. There are hundreds more at Balaclava waiting to be brought
down.... One reason of the amount of sickness is the wet weather, which
has interrupted the transport, even of commissariat supplies, between
Balaclava and the camp, and which finds its way, not only through the
men’s worn-out greatcoats in the trenches, but (what is harder still
to bear) through the rotten canvas of their tents. The consequence is
that for weeks, whether in bed or out of it, they have hardly ever been
dry. Their shoes, too, have been completely worn out, and they have
had, thus wretchedly provided, to bear the exposure of the trenches for
twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and wherever they went to paddle
knee-deep in mud.
_January 8._
Those who have been recently in the Crimea, and know the actual state
of the army with respect to health, when you ask them the number of
perfectly sound men left, reduce the already diminished strength of our
battalions in a most startling manner. Diarrhœa and dysentery do not
diminish either in the frequency or the intensity of their attacks.
Since the last mail left we have had a snowstorm, and we know that the
tents are still lying in Balaclava harbour without the means of transit.
Mortification of the feet from exposure has for some time been an
increasing feature of the cases brought down here. The army ought to
have warm clothing by this time; it is humiliating to contrast the
threadbare, tattered greatcoats, ragged trousers, and worn shoes of
these poor sufferers with the serviceable, excellent uniforms of the
Turkish army. What the army has had to endure in this way may no doubt
in some degree be traced to the disgraceful manner in which for some
years the clothing of regiments has been jobbed, but the more immediate
cause of it will be found in a fatal mistake committed at the very
outset of the Crimean invasion. When the troops landed, their kits were
left behind to secure greater expedition on the march. On arriving at
Balaclava, an order was issued to restore them, but no one had been
appointed to take charge, and the consequence was that everybody in and
about Balaclava was allowed to help himself.