The San Francisco call., 1898-11-21
STERNBERG'S
 REPORT ON TIE MEDICAL WORK Sickness Due to Camp
 Conditions. SURGEONS ALSO LIMITED MANY CONTRACT DOCTORS EM- PLoYED DURING THE WAR. Want of Sufficient Body of Trained Hospital Corps Men Was Also
 Keenly Felt in the Cuban
 Campaign.
SURGEONS ALSO LIMITED
MANY CONTRACT DOCTORS EM-
 PLoYED DURING THE WAR.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

| his report to the Secretary or war. IL relates mainly to the work of the medi- cal corps during the war. The follow 1 ing are the more important features | of the report:
 The number of medical officers. 192, al lowed by law to the army in inadequate in | time of peace. The insufticiency in time | of war was met by the assignment of over $50 contract surgeons. The very small proportion of medical officers having ex- the efficiency of the department at the outset, but many of the staff surgeons from civil life showed great aptitude for the service and speedily became or value as administrative sanitary officers. No provision was made for hospital corps men for the volunteer troops except that which empowered the Secretary of War to enlist as many privates of the hos pital corps as the service may require. The number of men enlisted and trans ferred during the war was approximately coco.
 The want of a sufficient body of trained hospital corps men neceSsitated the detail of enlisted men from the regiments for hospital duty in several of the camps and the employment of trained nurses at the general hospitals. Over 1700 female nurses have been employed. at first at the gener- al hospitals and later at the field division hospitals when 1t became evident that the had been organized would have to give place to the imperative need of caring for the many sick men coming from the regl-
 Immediately upon the declaration of war, April 2l, steps were taken to obtain medical supplies for the new volunteer army. The manufacture was expedited with the utmost dispatch. On May 5, fore seeing that 1t would be impossible to have ready for the issue to the volunteer regi- ments as soon as they were mustered In the necessary articles of field equipment, l telegraphed the Governors of the several States for authority to use the medical equipment of the National Guard in the service of the State until our army medi- cal supplies were ready for issue Most of the Governors who had field equipment responded promptly and satisfactorily, but unfortunately many of the State medical departments had no such equipment. Meanwhile the officers in charge of the medical supply depots were directed to make arrangements so that supplies could be immediately obtained for 100000 men for six months.
 Whenever the notice was received from the adjutant generals office that com mands were to be moved or camps formed the troops by telegraphing to the officer in charge of the nearest supply depot to forward supplies for the stated number of men,
 In my opinion the reduction of the age limit from 2l to IS years and the haste with which the volunteer regiments were organized and mustered into the service were responsible for much of the sickness which was reported in the early days Of the camp life. All military experience shows that young men upnder 21 years break down rapidly under the strain of war service, and every regiment had many of these youths In it's ranks Medi- cal examiners were appointed to testify to the physical conditions of each man before acceptance, but, notwithstanding on the sick lists of the camps unfit for service from causes existing prior to en- listment that special arrangements had to be made for their discharge.
 Soon after the newly raised levies were aggregated in large camps sickness began to increase progressively from eratfon that scarcely a regiment escaped from their harmful influence. These causes may largely be referred to ignor- ance on the part of officers of the princi- ples of camp sanitation and their duties and responsibilities as regards to the wei fare of the enlisted men in their com mandS.
 The sites of certain of the camps have been instanced in the newspapers as the cause of the sickness which was developed in them; but review of the whole situ- ation shows that it was not the site, but the manner of it's occupation which must be held responsible for the manner and spread of disease among the troops. On April %. 1898, foreseeing the likelihood of unsanitary conditions in the camps, medea ooers their ypGn in sanitary matters and the necessity for strict sanitary policy, particularly in the case of the sick and in the preservation But the necessity of the military popula- tion on the area of these contracted
  sanitary conditions. Camps of this char acter may be occupied for a week or two at a time without serious results, as in the case of National Guardsmen out for ten days practice during the summer but their continued occupation will inevitably result in the breaking down of the com tynhoid ttsiiho fever
 Practically nothing was done to make the men comfortable or remedy the sani tary conditions until these were brought to the attention of the Secretary of War by inspectors sent out from the War De- partment Then the camps held for so manifestations of typhoid infection were rife in them. New sites were carefully ed, company tentage increased and board flooring provided. Then for the first time the troops went into camps suitable for continued occupation.
 One prominent cause of the increase of sickness in the early camps has been com mented upon by only few of our med drunkenness and of disease due to the facilities and temptations afforded by the proximity of cities to the larger camps They hold that if the systems of the men had not been weakened by dissi- patton they would not have succumbed so readily to the other influences which af- fected them,
 It was typhoid fever which broke down the strength of the commands generally, the outbreak becoming distinctly manifest in July. Sporadic cases appeared in most of the regiments in May and June, these cases having been brought, in many in- stances, from the State companies In fact some regiments, as the Fifteenth Minnesota suffered more from this dis ease at their State rendezvous than any of the regiments at the large Federal camps. It appears from a general review. of the sanitary reports already filed that the prevalence of the disease was proportion ed to the unsanitary camp conditions which I have referred to. The probabil- ity of its communication to soldiers in camps through the agency of flies was pointed out as reason for insisting on a sanitary policy of the strictest character. It Is we'll known to the medical profession that this fever is propagated by a con- taminated water supply, and it Is now recognized that the great prevalence of this disease in an aggravated form in the camps of the civil war was due to the use of surface and shallow well waters infect ed by typhoid excreta. To prevent the transmission bys the water supply rec commended the use of boiled and filtered water when a pure spring supply could not be obtained and to enable an eff cient Alteration of suspected waters to be made, field filters of approved con- struction were issued on my recommenda- tion by the quartermaster' department. CARE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.
 The seriously sick were to be treated in their division field hospitals unless their