158 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, ember, 8990; in December, 6432 ; in January ^™- 1855, 9259; in February, 8298; in March, 7737 ; and in April, 6323, making altogether 51,786.(24) But in the hospitals and the regimental infir- maries ? (2^) Will not this immense mass of statistics enable us to meet the enquiry which simply asks, How many men, whether placed in the ambulances or the regimental infirmaries or in hospitals, were lying invalided at the close of each month ? Well, no ; for of patients received in the regimental infirmaries, these statistics say nothing ; and respecting the men left in hospital at the close of October, November, and December, the official revealers are silent ; but upon enter- ing the new year, State authority allows to ex- plorers a greater volume of light, and assures them that, at the close of January 1855, the French troops lying wounded or sick, in ambulance or hospital, were together 9263; at the close of February, 9645 ; at the close of March, 12,238 ; and at the close of April, 11,770.(26) With these numbers before him, and also a set of figures denoting the strength of Canrobert's army at the end of each month, a statist will quickly educe what he calls the 'percentages,' but he still must remain quite unable to gauge the full effect of the winter on General Canro- bert's troops, because kept (as will be presently seen) without any knowledge of the deaths that took place in the hospitals during the latter months of the year 1854; and besides, he will find himself baffled by the ceaseless stream of
