The San Francisco call., 1898-11-09
REGULATION RAT|ONS FOR
 SICK SOLDIERS Patients Lie on the
 Ground.
HOW MEDICINE WAS HANDLED
PILLS AND TABLETS sHoVELED
 TOGETHER.
No Trained Nurses in Some ot the Hospitals-Many of Them Could Neither Read
 Nor Write.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

CHICAGO. Nov. S-The War lnVes- tfgating Commission to-day continued the examination of witnesses. General Dodge, chairman of the committee,
 says that he can begin to see an end of the long investigation. After some evidence has been heard at Detroit the members of the committee will go to Washington. They have yet to visit Camp Meade, Pa., but it is likely that this camp will not be reached until after the return to Washington.
 According to Dr. Connor, the accu- mutation of papers and documents In the, possession of the commission would fill large-sized room.
 pr. G. A. Smith of Clinton, la, was the first witness to-day From Au- gust g to September 10 he was in charge of the Second Division Third Army Corps hospital at Camp Thomas
 Dr. Smith said: When l assumed my duties, July 14, l found shortage of tents and cots. The patients in the hospital were crowded on account of tent shortage. Some of the patients were lying on the ground on account Of lack of cots. Theres was no provision
 made for feeding the sick other than the ratiOns issued to the soldiers Tn the regular service, except Tor such food as was brought in by charitable organizations, the principal of which were the Red Cross Society and the National Relief.
 'In the pharmacy there were at that time no intestinal antiseptics, although the commanding officer informed me when I made a requisition that he had made repeated efforts to get them. The pharmacy at that time-and, indeed, until it was ordered closed and 1 turned the stores over to the Govern ment on the 9th of September-neVer had any proper equipment for doing pharmaceutical work. There were no scales to measure with. The hospital stewards used board for time l There were no pill boxes or powder pa pers. The stewards dispensed tablets and pills in any paper they could se- cure, and they were carried to the wards in that shape, and owing to the prevalence of dampness at night they would become by morning a sticky mass not fit for use"
 The witness then went on to say that the medical supplies did improve after the 1st of August, but up to that time there had been a great scarcity of suit able supplies.
 pr. Smith said: The water that was furnished for the use. of the hospitals up to August was taken from the pipe line from Chickamauga Creek, and it was so full of sediment that it was simply sfush and not water.
 There were no floors in any of the hospital tents at the time I reported for duty at that hospital. The first tent was foored soon after the middle of July although some were not hoored until long after that. The floors in the tents of the Fifty-second Iowa, the First Maine and the Fifth Missouri were all laid after the troops had left the park and were never occupied by the soldiers and never had cots placed in them In fact, l might state that the floors were laid after orders had been received to pack goods prepara- tory to leaving for Anniston.
 Tn regard to nursing in that hos pital, We had no trained nurses. All the nursing was done by orderlies, and many of them were densely ignorant, and when l was in charge of the wards of the Second Brigade I had two men who could neither read nor write, and three men who did not know the meaning of Ma or Pa, when writ len !"