Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-10-06
Typhoid Taking Stronghold, and One-Fourth of the Army Is
 Unfit For Service.
MUST BE SENT AWAY
 TO REGAIN HEALTH.
Volunteers Are Suffering More Than the Regulars-Disease Brought to the Island-Siek Are Being
 Sent to the North.

Copyrighted, 1898 by the Associated Press.
 Ponce, Octa It is the well ground ed and almost unanimous opinion Of the medical staff of the American army i'll Porto Rico that conditions of the velun- teer forces here necessitates their re- mova1 north. Sickness is increasing and has been increasing the past three weeks at an alarming rate. Today the sick report shows over 2700 in hospitals or in quarters out of 8 total command of 10,- 900, that IS, over % per cent of the troops are on the sick list The medical officers have found that the conyales- cents do not, and seemingly cannot, re- cover their strength in this climate, and for this reason they are being sent north as rapidly as possible, several hundred leaving every week.
 1t is 8 significant fact that there is 6 wide disparity between the sickness in the volunteer and regular commands. h the two regular infantry regiments the sickness averages only 10 per cent, while in the volunteer regiments it av- erages 54. Undoubtedly the wide dis parity between the percentage of sick ness i'll the volunteer and regular organ izations is largely due to the fact that the former are better able to care for themselves Most of them are veterans who understand the rules of health in. camp and their officers from the very outset have enforced the sanitary regula- tions so necessary for the preservation of health. But more than this, the regu- lars are making soldering a business. They did not enlist for the war, but for five years, and they look upon their as- signment for service in perhaps philo- sophica1ly and so make the best of the situation The volunteers on the other hand, enlisted for two years, but with the almost universal expectation that they would be mustered out when the war closed. Almost to man they de- sire to go home, and ever since the pro- tocol was signed they have lived ill the daily hope of being recalled. For days they have talked of nothing else. Homesiekness deLressed their spirits and made them easy victims to the malarial climatic conditions. It is said that some of them who did not fall sick naturally, actually exposed themselves to the weather'or ate freely of tropical fruits despite the regulations, that they might become ill and be sent home Some, it is alleged, even feigned sickness and quite a number of these succeeded in their'designs.
 The medical staff of the army under direction of Major Snowden, has labored unceasingly to stay the progress of dis ease and sickness, but the sick list grows larger atsthe rate of 50 or 60 day de- spite theh efforts.
 The weekly report of 8 week ago shows 365 cases of typhoid fever, 565 cases ef malaria, one case of smallpox and 1450 cases of climatic fever, diar- rhoea, etc. Since then about 300 eases nave been auded 70 the i1st.
 The worst feature of the situation is the steady increase of the number of ty- phoid fever, cases which today reaches over 400. For 8 time it appeared prob able that the typhoid fever in the army, most of which is alleged to have come from Camp Thomas and Camp Alger originality would be stamped out, but in about three weeks new cases began to appear at an alarming rate. Major Snowden and his associates do not be- lieve, that there is,a new source of con- tagion, but rather that the cases are due to infectionl from the old cases.
 It is possible that when the troops cross after ftheIevacuation of the island is completed by the Spaniards and get into barrackaout' of the rain, which falls almost daily5 their condition will i'm prove, but aa to this the physicians are very skeptical There are spacious bar racks in every large town ill tbe island, more than sufficient to accommodate any garrision wemay leave there and at San Juan- Fiyet thousand men can be accommodated easily in the barracks at the San Oristobal and Morro forts. At most of the towns there are also well equipped dshospitaf buildings. It is said to be the opinionbof many of the gen eral officers thatsthe volunteer organi- zationsi could be lswithnrawn and that the two regularf regiments with the troops1of cavalryfand four batteries of artillery, ,now onfthe island, would be