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]

Indefatigable in the discharge of his interesting duties, Mr Jackson