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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



NATIONAL SURGICAL DRESSINGS DEPARTMENT AT ROME I SHOWING A STOCK OE 



SURGICAL DRESSINGS 



Each morning the masses of whiteness mount ceiling high, only to melt away like snow 



by nightfall 



Russell, probably the first war corre- 

 spondent to render a great public service 

 and win a conspicuous fame — sent des- 

 patches in October, 1854, from the front 

 describing- the deplorable conditions of 

 the British troops in the Crimea, England 

 was startled and aroused. Said he: 



"It is impossible for any one to see the 

 melancholy sights of the last few days 

 without feelings of surprise and indigna- 

 tion at the deficiencies of our medical 

 system. The manner in which the sick 

 and wounded are treated is worthy only 

 of the savages of Dahomey. . . . The 

 worn-out pensioners who were brought 

 as an ambulance corps are totally useless, 

 and not only are surgeons not to be had, 

 but there are no dressers or nurses to 

 carry out the surgeon's directions and to 

 attend on the sick during the intervals 

 between his visits. Here the French are 

 greatly our superiors. Their medical ar- 

 rangements are extremely good, their 

 surgeons more numerous, and they have 



also the help of the Sisters of Charity, 

 who have accompanied the expedition/ 1 

 This was in the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century — a century which, so far 

 as England was concerned, was marked 

 above all things by the growth of the 

 democratic and humane idea. There had 

 been more than twenty years of conscious 

 reform through public agitations and 

 parliamentary measures ; extension of 

 suffrage ; one parliamentary bill after an- 

 other providing for better working con- 

 ditions in the factories and in the mines ; 

 for betterment of living conditions among 

 the poor, especially with respect to 

 women and children. 



AN AGE OE "REFORMATORY" AUTHORS 



A "school" of literature had sprung 

 up, perhaps the greatest since "the spa- 

 cious times of great Elizabeth," and the 

 most popular of the many authors who 

 were already making famous the term 

 "Victorian Age of Literature" were those 



