Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-12
Recommendation Concerning the Hos
pital at Mare Island

Recommendations Concerning the Hos
pital at Mare Island.
WAsHINGToN November I1th-Surgeon-
General Browne of the Navy submits his
annual report to-day. Of the force afioat
the daily average sick has been 100 The
total number of men. 9,095; the number of
cases of sickness, II, ,499, and the number Of
deaths, 123. The appropriations for the
past year, Sl6S $50, and the estimates asked
for the next year, S169, ,410. The general
health Is reported good numerous i'm
prove nentssin naval hospitals are recon-
mended. In the estimates for the next
year is an item of S. 900 for constructing
a cistern at the Naval Hospital, Mare Is
land, and $l5,500 for constructing a resi-
dence for the Medical Director in charge of
the same hospital. OF Mare Island, CAL,
he says:
The condition OF the hospital is highly cred
liable. Many repairs and improvements were
made during the year. This hospital was built
in lS6970: Since that time in eight annual re-
ports of the bureau attention has been called to
the urgent need OF separate quarters for the
medical officers in charge. The architect did
not provide for the residence of this officer
within the building. At the hospitals on the
Atlantic coast, except Washington, houses are
provided for such officers and their families
There are no houses at Mare Island that can be
rented. The Medical Directors is compelled to
occupy rooms intended for junior medical Off
GERS and a ward which has never been used for
The sick. Junior medical officers have rooms on
the first floor, which could be put to public use
If the Medical Director resided without the
building With an increasing demand for space
to accommodate patients, this arrangement
causes great inconvenience The hospital is
second in Importance to that at Brooklyn. Many
patients are sent from the Pacific and Asiatic
stations for treatment or discharge Some by
reason OF advanced age, are unfit for further
and oil .I,,
of naval home, are unwilling to exchange the
advantages of climate for the severer one of the
East. Othe- S, whose homes are in this vicinity
wish 10 remain in California.
The number of paralygics and infirm seamen
and marines is constantly increasing from
causes incident to service, for whom provision
should be made for their subsistence and care
and thereby avoiding the crowded condition of
the Naval Home at Philadelphia, and the ex-
pense of transfer thereto. The vacation of the
ward now occupied by the Medical Director in
charge would afford facilities for this purpose
which would probably suffice for years
In view of removing the embarrassment esti-
mates are submitted fo7 building house for
the Medical Director at q cost of S15,500 inciud-
ing all the expenses of connections with the
hospital system of water supply heating light
ing, sewerage and drainage, for which your ap-
proval is earnestly solicited cisterl for
stowage of water, to contain 300 900 gallons is
needed. placed upon declivity in the rear of
the hospital, TO enable the delivery of water
into the two principal stories of the hospital
without labor and the cost OF pumping from the
present reservoir into the lower tanks as must
now be done. Serious difficulties would follow
any accident TO the main of the Vallejo Water
Company, which crosses Napa strait, By pre-
venting the delivery of water or its sudden use
IN the event OF a water famine, which was
threatened TINS season. There would be on
hand reserve of water in storage A perma-
nent advantage would be the saving of the
water supplied from Vallejo, which under the
existing arrangements, is in excess of needs
An additional cist7 would prevent the use of
one of those already built contriving a supply
OF drinking water caught from the root thereby
having pure water in place of the impure water
received from Vallejo. The estimated cost for
constructing the storage cistern is $780, for
which an appropriation is asked in the esti-
mates for the next fiscal year
Whatever she annnal appropriation for repairs
will warrant the following Improvements
should be made A retaining wall, built of
concrete, in rear of the engine house To pre-
serve bank zen feet in hight which is coz
stantIy dlsintegrating and tumbling down into
the area. at the estimated cost ofss50. The area
pavement OF brick in the rear IF the hospital,
1,5l6 square feet. is old and unsightly, difficult
10 keep clean, and often undermined by rats
making constant repairs necessary. This is to
$50. '''0' y ''--'-s'' ~ al es''Hia'eu c0s' Oi
In order to extend the present walk paved
with concrete as far as the entrance to the
ground, 2,S5S square feet of similar pavement
will be required, at the estimated cost OF S425
The pest house, situated on the west slope of
the island, is a small wooden building origin
ally used as an Office by Commander FarTagut
the first Commander ofthe navy yard. In 1878
II was loaned temporarily TO the Bureau of
Medicine and Surgery by the Bureau of Yards
and Docks and removed to its present location
1t is in dilapidated condition without doors
or windows, with breaks in the roof and walls.
and cattle enter it at will. Dry rot has so
effected its timber that it may be regarded as
complete ruin, unworthy of repair and entirely
unfit tor further use. Quicker Portable Field
al fOfn IL i
the treatment of contagious diseases, will be
substitutes.
The cemetery contains 25S graves of which
all have been supplied with headboards by the
Government and in few cases by headstoneS
and monuments furnished by relatives of the
dead. The shrinking OF eartn. following q
soaking by heavy rains, has forced many of the
head boards out of line. and some have fallen
ana several of the stones are broken. The
r st0ra'ion of headbOards and headstones and
the lettering OF those partly efiaced has been
ordered by the Bureau.
The Navy Yard Dispensary is happily located
in portion oftbe Equipment building situated
practically in the center of the Navy Yard In
the Dearness to the workshops where most of
the accidents happen that require surgical aid.
the arrangement for the reception of such cases
are all that are required.
The equipment of the dispensary is in every
way eommendable The medical store -room
supplemental to the naval laboratory, dis
tributes medical stores and appliances to the
Mare Island Hospital at the Navy Yard. 1t is
connected with dispensary and is exceedingly
well arranged for the reception and issue of
stores
At the Marine Barracks there is a dispensary
and ward for the temporary treatment of pa
tients. Both have suitably equipped dispensa-
ries and medical store-rooms in charge of a sur
geon OF the yard. The original faulty system of
sewerage has been improved by Civil Engineer
Wolcott. II is yet imperfect, aud will so con-
tinue until the old and worn-out plumbing
defective trapping and water closets OF obsolete
pattern are removed and general system of
water-closet ventilation by II cans of pipe car
ried above roofs is established