ith regiments as with ships, a standing truth, that efficiency of
condition is compatible only with efficiency and sympathy on the part of
the officers. The grand secret of our naval discipline is the
recognition of this truth: and no where does it find a more full
exemplification than on board our ships. There every officer (every
_good_ officer) feels for, and with, his men. Nothing, save the positive
requirement of the service, is allowed to interfere with their comfort.
The care of their health is as much the ambition and duty of the captain
as is the care of his ship. Few things in the strange world afloat would
strike a landsman more, than the minute attention habitually paid to men
who are hourly liable to the most perilous risks. At the need of the
service, limb and life are freely ventured; but not a wet jacket is
inflicted, nor a meal prorogued wantonly. Jack, who is burdened with no
care for himself, becomes devoted to his officers who care for him;
ready at their bidding to jump overboard, or to turn to and get the
mainmast out all standing. A well-ordered man-of-war, where this feeling
prevails from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, affords perhaps the
finest exhibition of harmony of purpose of which our nature is capable.
The inspection of a single regiment is insufficient ground whereon to
found general observations; but so far as this one specimen is
concerned, we can speak of the Turks as having made some slight approach
to this most desirable condition. We were surprised to find an Osmanli
in the position of surgeon to the establishment; because the religious
principles of such a one are understood to be invincibly opposed to the
prosecution of the studies that must qualify for such a post. Without
dissection what can they know of anatomy? and unskilled in anatomy, how
can they guide the knife healingly among the intricacies of the human
frame? Yet all the operative surgery in this hospital is the care of the
native surgeon, by whom the most formidable operations are successfully
performed. The best proof that these medicos are up to their work, is
found in the fact, that the sick-list was very small. It was quite
surprising to see how few beds were occupied. Indeed, the men are so
well clothed, well fed, and lodged so airily, that their tenure of
health must be far more secure when on service than when in their own
homes.

Our inspection had occupied some time, and brought the day well on to
the hou