As some months must elapse before they could sail for Palestine, Ignatius determined that the time should be spent partly in hospital work at Venice and later in the journey to Rome.
Chard and Bromhead, numbered about 80 men of the 24th regiment, and they had in hospital between 30 and 40 men.
It is true that state training schools for male nurses had previously existed in Prussia, the oldest having been founded at Magdeburg in 1799; but the employment of men in hospital wards is a feature of the German system which has not been copied by other advanced countries, and seems to be in process of abandonment in Germany.
The yearly income of more than £17,000 is disposed of in pensions and in hospital grants.
The British loss amounted to 58 killed, 379 wounded and 22 missing; nearly 2000 Egyptians were killed, and more than 500 wounded were treated in hospital.
