New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-12-21
TIE HEALTH OF THE ARMY.

! been made of defects In the protection OF our
soldiers against disease while in the field and
I in their supply of comforts and necessaries
when in hospital. For instance, it has been
said that many regiments have been poisoned
with smallpox by men sent back to duty after
being cured of measels, or some other disorder,
in a smallpox hospital. II has been said that
many Army hospitals have been deficient in the
cOmmonest necessaries; that these have been
supplied in great measure by voluntary cOntri-
buttons; and that it is only by this means that
general howl of popular indignation against red
tape, Incidence and iDeflcieucy has been
ayerted 1t has been said that the Medical
Bureau in Washington had not within its reach
last September hospital supplies for 800 adj
ditional patients, though great battle was
daily expected, and it should have been ready
to provide for ten thousand wounded men ut
on hours notice. All this, and much more,
has been said, and has not yet been denied.
The apology for all these shortcomings has,
| till recently, been that the Medical Bureau was
on peace establishment when the war broke
out and that it was taken uDawares. 1t has
been generally represented that our soldiers
die of typhus and other preventable Diseases
mainly because six months is too short time
for the Medical Bureau to learn that there is
war; that il has 600, 900 men to care for
instead Of 1900, and that its duties are no
longer confined to the placid routine of peace.
! establishment.
But the Bureau is now defending itself by
an aggressive movement. This movement Is
unfortunately not directed against its natural
and official enemies-typhus, malaria, and
small-po defective ventilation Of tents, imper-
feet drainage of camps, and lazy regimental
surgeons, but against a volunteer organization
that is endeayorng to do the work the Medical
| Bureau leaves undone, and which has thus to
some extent shielded that Bureau from the
public Indignation which its criminal Detiiciency
deserves 1t not only omts its own Official
duty Of saving the soldiers, but seems disposed
to do what it can TO hinder and embarrass
others who are trying to do its work gratu-
tously, and in humble subordination to it's au-
thority, by attacking their motives, and trying
/ to weaken public confidence in their labors.
| For this purpose it appears TO have retained
/ The N. Y. Times, which is striving to uphold
the Medical Bureau by the not very logical
process Of showing that the Sanitary Commits
sion is ambitious" and that the volunteer
efforts aud contributions of the People through
the Commission and otherwise DO not preserve
/ the Army in perfect health. This is some
what ungracous labor at best, especially as it
can have 10 real bearing on the merits of the
rather desperate case The Times undertakes to
defend.
For example: a member of the Sanitary
Commission, in an appeal to the public for
/ funds TO enable il to carry on its operations,
states that il is issuing vaccine matter sutii-
cient for many thousand patients, at yery con-
siderable cost, to rcgimental surgeons who pro-
I fcss themselves unable TO get it from the
Medical Bureaus and adds that il is preparing
paper addressed to resimenta surgeons, on
the Importance Of thorough rc-voccnation Of
their men. This step seems humane and judi
cious; and the only remark it suggests is that
/ it is strange Government should have left so
obvious duty as that Of protecting its soldiers
against smallpox to be performed by private
charity, through voluntary organization. Bat
The N. y. Times disposes of it with a sneer
az ga roundabout course" and asks triumph
nntly why the Commission does not at once
yaccnate the whole Army 1t may not have
occurred TO The n. Y. Times or TO the Medical
Bureau that this might possibly cost more money
than the Sanitary Commission has ever had within
it's reach for all its multifarious objects. Ii
might also be suggested that neither the Com
mission nor its Inspectors have authority to
vaccinate single solder. All it or they can
do is TO urge on regmental surgeons the i'm
mense Importance of prompt attention TO this
means Of preserving their men from very pos
sibe pestilence, and to furnish them from its
stores the means of doing so, whenever they
can be prevailed on to adopt its advice. This
is duty which the army regulations impose
on tho Medical Bureau. With a little proyi
dence and forethought it could have provided,
months ago, the means of doing 50, and it,
and it alone, has tie power as well as the duty
of insuriDg every man in the army against tho
danger of vario!ous disease This duty it has
neglected. There has not been within its cou-
troll since the war began, one-quarter (if one
tenth) the amount of vaccine virus that should
have been there for the Army Of the Potomac
alone.
1t is simply preposterOuS for tie Medical
Bureau or its organ to ask n volunteer or
ganzation, that is quietly endeayoring to save
the army FROM the consequences Of this gross