at New York.  Jackson replied, to no one; but that a fellow-passenger from Jamaica would readily testify to his being a gentleman.  ‘I require no testimony to your being a gentleman,’ returned the kind-hearted colonel.  ’Your countenance and address satisfy me on that head.  I will receive you into the regiment with pleasure; but then I have to inform you, Mr Jackson, that there are seventeen on the list before you, who are of course entitled to prior promotion.’  The next day, at the instance of Colonel Campbell, the regimental-surgeon, Dr Stuart, appointed Jackson acting hospital or surgeon’s mate—­a rank now happily abolished in the British army; for those who filled it, whatever might be their competency or skill, were accounted and treated no better than drudges.  Although discharging the duties that now devolve on the assistant-surgeon, they were not, like him, commissioned, but only warrant-officers, and therefore had no title to half-pay.

Dr Stuart, who appears to have been a man superior to vulgar prejudice, and to have appreciated at once the extent of Jackson’s acquirements and the vigour of his intellect, relinquished to him, almost without control, the charge of the regimental hospital.  Here it was that this able young officer began to put in practice that amended system of army medical treatment which since his time, but in conformity with his teachings, has been so successfully carried out as to reduce the mortality amongst our soldiery from what it formerly was—­something like 15 per cent.—­to what it is now, about 2-1/2 per cent.

In the army hospitals, at the period Jackson commenced a career that was to eventuate so gloriously, there was no regulated system of diet, no classification of the sick.  What are now well known as ‘medical comforts,’ were things unheard of; the sick soldier, like the healthy soldier, had his ration of salt-beef or pork, and his allowance of rum.  The hospital furnished him with no bedding; he must bring his own blanket.  Any place would do for an hospital.  That in which Jackson began his labours had originally been a commissary’s store; but happily its roof was water-tight—­an unusual occurrence—­and its site being in close proximity to a wood, our active surgeon’s mate managed, by the aid of a common fatigue party, to surround the walls with wicker-work platforms, which served the patients as tolerably comfortable couches.  A further and still more important change he effected related to the article of diet.  He suggested, and the suggestion was adopted—­honour to the courageous humanity which did not shrink from so righteous an innovation!—­that instead of his salt ration and spirits, which he could not consume, the sick soldier should be supplied with fresh meat, broth, &c.; and that, as the quantity required for the invalid would be necessarily small, the quarter-master should allow the saving on the commuted ration to be expended in the common market on other comforts, such as sago, &c. suitable for the patient.  Thus proper hospital diet was furnished, without entailing any additional expense on the state.[2]