The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-08-18
HOSPITAL SERVICE AT CHIcKAMAU.
GA.

m auga in which very grave charges were
made against the hospital department..
Some of the accusations were OF such
character that it was hard to credit them,
even though they came from person
whom we knew to be thoroughly trust
worthy. 1t seemed almost as II ne must
have been misinformed, or had been be-
trayed by his indignation into hyperDoie.
Information. however, from other sources
has not only fully corroborated his ALE
cations, but has tended to indicate that
instead of exaggerating the state OF things
he rather softened it. We have before Us
at the present writing some extracts from
Chattanooga papers of recent date, in
which the condition of the hospital SER
vice is described at length. These de-
scriptions are derived from personal OBJ
servations by the reporters and from the
testimony of officers and men, and they
set forth state of things to characterize
which disgraceful is altogether too mild
term. The neglect or ineff1ciency or
whatever it may be called that has
brought about such a state OF things is
nothing short of criminal, and 1T ought
to be somebody's business to ferret out the
person or persons who are responsible and
infiict appropriate punishment Some of
the articles alluded to it would be inju-
dicious to publish as unnecessarily har-
rowing to the persons who have relatives
i'll the camp, especially as there is reason
to believe that the conditions have now
been somewhat ameliorated by improve
ments in the service and the removal OF
many of the sick. One of them,
general in it's character, which ap.
peared in the Chattanooga Times of a re-
cent date we reproduce as follows:
Looseness in respect of proper santa
ton AMI abominably bad medical ad-
ministration, those are the troubles at
Camp Thomas. The inspectors are great
ly at fault. The medical officers are still
more, much more, to blame. We do not
take as the literal truth all that has
been repeated as to the shockingly bad
management of the hospitals. We do be-
lieve that nearly all of the reports of neg
lect and positive, infamous cruel y, have
too much of truth in them. What every
body says concerning a given set of cir
cumstances or conditions, the harInoni-
GUS tone of stories coming from privates,
from commissioned and non-commis-
stoned officers, from chaplains, from
newspaper men-from, in short, all who
have looked over the alleged hospitals at
Camp Thomas-is to the effect that the
sick are made sicker in those places by
neglect. We are told by those who are
certainly well informed, that one nurse is
allowed to sixteen sick men. We are told
that double this number of sick are as
signed TIC one nurse in some of the wards.
We are told the men on the cot wallow
have been furnished with mosquito nets
to keep flies off the sick, but ''they were
too large'' and could not be used We
are told that all of these abuses have be-
come SO common that the officers and
linen have largely grown indifferent to
them. We have it on the best of authori-
ty that sick men are kept IN company
officers. to be treated there, because of
the niserably inefficient management
of the hospitals. All of these stories, and
great many more that are equally shock
ing and exasperating. are told by those
who are sure to know the truth.
The death rate has simply been made
larger than it ought to have been, by
heartless, brutal neglect. II Is marvei-
Ious that the death rate is not double the
number reported. In bad climate and
with a polluted water supply, the case
would be far worse than it is.
A word here about the alleged preva-
ence of typhoid at Camp Thomas: The
truth probably is that any fever is dubbed
typhoid. 1t is not conceivable that, In
hospitals where the general adm1nlstra-
ton is marked by sloyenliness ana neg
lect, that diagnosi is is critically attended
to. 1t is the opinion of prominent medl'
cal men that not one in five OF the pa
tients at Camp Thomas, reported as hav-
ing, typhoid, were really victims OF that
malady.
When an army is on the march, es-
pecially in the enemy's country, 1t Is ex-
peoted that the soldiers will have to on
dure great hardships. The exposure of
the men to great sufferings is then often
times unavoidable. Bad roads, hostile
bands of guerillas, and the hurry and
confusion incident to active campaiQning
render it exceedingly difficult and some
times impossible to get up in season
the needed supplies. The lack of hospital
stores before Santiago may have been
due, in fact was due, in part at least, to
some of these unavoidable causes. But