The evening times., 1898-08-22

force of enlisted men Is detailed for
hospital service. These men are pro-
vided with Htters for carrying the
wounded, and able-bodied men have
been trained to the work: they have
compresses and bandages, and know
how to use them for checking hemor-
rhages, and 1t is their business to fol-
! low up the line of battle to pick up
the wounded and take them to the
rear. II there was any such hospital
detail in General Skaters army, 1t dis
appeared when the battle began, leav-
ing those who were shot to bleed to
death. to lose themselves and die Of
starvation, or to crawl and limp their
painful and uncertain way to the hos
pitfalls. No explanation is or can be
made of this that does not involve
brutal indifference or rank inefficiency.
Most of the wounded men. all the cor
respondents and disinterested foreign
observers agree as to the facts.
Concerning the suffering on the
transports. Secretary Alger says 1t was
perhaps due, to carelessness and negli-
genceTiffcontrary to positive orders-but
largely ,.on account of not having the
medical force to spare. many Of the
doctors being sick. Many Of the
medical, Officers sent with the trans
home" That the surgeons were over
worked after the battle is well known.
but it is confidently asserted that at
no time were there doctors enough with
the army. Also, there was a conspic-
uous absence of a medical system and
authority. When DR.. Sem reached
Santiago's front from Chiclcemauga
he was shocked by the awful neglect
of the simplest sanitary precautions.
Not only were the men exposed to
unnecessary dangers in the rain-filled
trenches, but he found them using the
the city bathed and washed their in
fected clothing. There was not med
ical officer to warn them of the peril
they incurred. This was the source Of
the first infection.
1t is not necessary to repeat the
Sttty VI put ~ 10 oPPoA-
ent that the War Department has not
been fully informed on this point.
One of the transports had two young
contract surgeons, who were not equal
to the work demanded of them; an
other had only a doctor who was sick
before leaving Cuba, and who was not
in the service Of the department. That
there was no army medical man to take
the responsibility of inspecting the
earlier transports for the wounded, and
of preventing civilians from crowding
them out of their staterooms, Is es-
tabiished. 1t is equally certain that
in the case of the Mobile the three
hundreG sick were forced to live on
the simplest rations or go hungry.
Accepting the statement that if the
attack on santiago was to be made
when it fwas. the troops must suffer
from hunger and exposure, which made
them peculiarly susceptible to climate
diseases. there is still the appalling and
inefiiciency and indiffer-
ence of the highest medical officers. or
else complete absence of such officers.
at Santiago. leading to infinite suffer-
ing from the lack of a system. There
is still the failure to provide for the
sick and wounded on the transports
they could eat. And there is
still the fact that many of the re- |
turned soldiers were forced to lie out |
all night in the rain at the camp at |
Montauk Point, and the sick had to |
remain on the transport because no
shelter was provided ashore. That
typhoid fever should be allowed to be- !
come epidemic in all the camps is a
further indictment of the medical
service.