§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, on behalf of the hon. and gallant Member for Queen's County (Colonel Dunne), he would beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty the reason why Surgeons in the Royal Navy have been recently appointed to ships to do Assistant Surgeons' duty, and if it be owing to a scarcity of the latter Officers, or that there are no Candidates on the list for admission into the Medical Service of the Navy; and if the Admiralty have taken any steps to remove so great an evil?
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, that several young surgeons had been placed on promotion on foreign stations in order to retain their services on board ship as surgeons, partly for the purpose of keeping young surgeons employed, and partly because there was more or less difficulty in filling up the places of assistant surgeons. There was so much employment elsewhere, that they did not keep the number complete. The right hon. Gentleman seemed to think that the Admiralty were in great want of assistant surgeons, but that was not the case; and the Admiralty did not think it necessary to take any steps for the purpose of giving additional facilities for the entry of assistant surgeons into the service.