' The structural defects were
equalled by the deficiencies in the commonest objects of hospital
use. There were not enough bedsteads; the sheets were of canvas,
and so coarse that the wounded men recoiled from them, begging to
be left in their blankets; there was no bedroom furniture of any
kind, and empty beer bottles were used for candlesticks. There
were no basins, no towels, no soap, no brooms, no mops, no trays,
no plates; there were neither slippers nor scissors, neither
shoe-brushes nor blacking; there were no knives or forks or
spoons. The supply of fuel was constantly deficient. The cooking
arrangements were preposterously inadequate, and the laundry was
a farce. As for purely medical materials, the tale was no better.
Stretchers, splints, bandages--all were lacking; and so were the
most ordinary drugs.
To replace such wants, to struggle against such difficulties,
there was a handful of men overburdened by the strain of
ceaseless work, bound down by the traditions of official routine,
and enfeebled either by old age or inexperience or sheer
incompetence. They had proved utterly unequal to their task. The
principal doctor was lost in the imbecilities of a senile
optimism. The wretched official whose business it was to provide
for the wants of the hospital was tied fast hand and foot by red
tape.
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