New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-01-15
THE WAR FOl The UNION.
r,-v mEpvCAL DUEEhU.

f;oa Of the Medical Bureau seems 10 siuViber' IL
IL ia be hoped that Congress is fully awake 10 t"e
;,,,ergaree of eedy acton on IT, Every u"y
g.. .,os by without such action condemns q GER
ts;, nn,,bar of volunteer soldiers TO mlseraole'
useless. aud ing,oriogs death. Every week DE-
law costs tie nation as many lives aud as hicch
rostoal strength as il would lose in an unsrccess-
I'll AFFAIR of ten thousand zen.
An efiaent Medical Department is as import
,pt N The q,rsy and te the nation as an efficient
co,s,uoader-r..clief Gen. MeClelan's duty is TO
esopemize cir soldiers lives On the march and III
battle. That Of the Surgeon General is 10 keep
them ii good condition for the march and for bat
tie aud thO.ouglly protected against disease III
camp and quarters aud 10 provide whatever IS
neeesqs ~ for The restoration Of SEX e1d wounded
men to health, in the shortest possible time VIZ
the smallest possible waste Of life. DR.. Fiula5 is
practically more important peIs1age TO the ua-
ton than Gen. Mcclellan. For disease hs' dis
nbled thirty men since last June for every man
disabled by violence Ut accident Of any kind, OF
these thirty, at lesst fifteen siekened because
some cue IN the Medical staff, superior or subor-
diaate neglected TO enforce sOtne wel-kDcFgn pre-
caution against disease; and fearful proportion
have died aOd are dying because their surgeons
were aud are without medicines or hospital sup
plies of the most manifest necessity.
Our Army Medical Department is half Gen.
tury bchisd thoae of France aud England and
our national shortcomings in tits respect are new
milking themselves felt on the largest scale. There
il ut this moment twice as much bereavement and
mourning in loyal homes from Maine TO Missouri,
because OF the weakness ard obs.TuctiyrnesS o
the Medical Bureau, MS from all The rebel rGeS
that have been fired since The war began. Thi'
is a stern, tangible fact which anybody can yeIi!
who viii consult the official returns and reports
that are daily accommodating in Washington, 10 BE-
tied up in red tape and forgotten.
That thirty soldiers in active service should be
parayzed by disease fer ore disabled by the ene-
nv, seems at first incredible. IL raises Il pre-
sumption at Least that the sanitary condition Of
tie army needs attention; for the cordhons OF
the soldiers life should be, on the whole healthy
and invigoratirg. He is camping out, like the
iumbernan the tropper, tie tourist, or the New
Yorker who spends fortnight in Maine or the
Adirondack region looking after deer.
We generally think of such men as leading Il
life that fortifes them against disease. But the
soldier is moreover compelled to regular system
attic bodily exercise at drill and parade. and is cut
off from many unwLOlesOme indulgences that
shorten the liver of civilians lie ought tn be
laying in reserve store vi health aud strength.
Why is he dying of tyPhus and of malarOus ie-
vers The only answer is, because he is exposed
to certain peculiar dangers-fioln crowded and
undraiDed camps, ilLyentated tents, and i'll.
cooked food. 1t is the Office Of the Medical Blu
reau to provide against these dangers. 1t has
done and is doing nothing of the kind, end, as
ut present organized. it is thus in fact perma-
nent and chronic calamity to the nation, equiya.
lent to about one Bull Run month.
But it not only allows our soldiers to sicken for
want of precautions against.dsease--it sits still
and sees them perish when disabled by wounds
or disease, for want u all that common humanity
N and deceDcy prescribe us the first essentials for
. any hospital, civil or military. This will be Illus
frated BY the following extract from letter. ad-
dressed to gentleman Of this city, by one OF the
most accomplished and eminent physicians of the
West, whose opportunities Of observation in thi,
country and in Europe entitle lin TO speak with
authority. The letter is dated Dec. 22. and i.
devoted to description Of the Military Hospital:
its writer visited in Missouri and Kentucky:
q Early In the morning LEFT THE freight train for
OtteVie 1900 in cmp aud lick scattered On thir.
teen small miserable bowels. They mos, piiisble
condition. Everything wsntng-foOd, rsrnon b,d, med
feines would he impossible describe be wre,chednes
Of that place Snd Of poor sodrs The mail train tool
usto Syracuse Eight house, among them two hoals filed
With sick thought Otterye exhibited uuriysd picture
Of misery bat 1t greatly supposed by the horror. Of
Syracuse The houses, the beds the patients dlthy In Il
exreme the stencil In the sbsoulsly n,oiersb No
pig ever looked disoderly snd filthy No
healthy visible but the hardly convsescent with
difficulty smbulsng invalid ia the only nurse
with bis duty and wholly unable perform when he learns
e. II siokens recsll 1t my recollection Il vi nsu.
sss,e you you read this Is ne.ay that our soldiers
should suffer thusl large humber Of those saw are men
vel to DO In this world Of and position bu. IN
camp end iD these Hospitals merged lost 10 raire o,
9th"
Another private letter, dated Hilton lead,
Dec. &c, from an intelligent observer, says:
Th.rs considerable sickness In the army here and there
been amount Of suffering from tho Of
hospital and medical vaos and variooia have been
unnecessarily fatal Dr. fears is spread to the African
population Of the Island All the virus which vas
furnished has used and the army yet from being
thoroughly re-ysceinsted."
From another division of the Army, the Surgeon
Of Volunteer Regiment (under date of Jan. %
states that