The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-29

the water from the tributary stream had contaminated the pipe water being carried back into it by means of eddies and in one case by a freshet. General Boynton and MT. Belts, both of whom had been concerned in locating the pipe line, admitted that Cave Spring creek had once overflowed and broken dam, thus throwing it's water into the main stream above the intake; but they ex- plained that this freshet occurred at a night when the pumps were shut down and no water was being taken in. They called attention to the rapid ity of the flow and to the depth of the stream and urged the impossibility of imperfection from this source Cen eral Wilson gave especial attention to the question as an engineering prob lem and it was evident from the eX- pressions that he dropped that he was impressed with the strong improbabll- ity of infection from this course It was also equally evident that a major ity of the commission formed the same opinion. The were many expressions of commendation of the methods fol- lowed at Sternberg hospital. They found only thirty eight patients in the hospital and most of these were con- Valescent.
 Major Griffin, in command of the hospital, said it would soon be aban- doned. The commission also gave at tention to the proximity of the various camps to one another and the depth and location of the sinks.i The conclu-
 sion seemed quite general that many of the regiments were thrown more closely together than they should have
 been and that this fault could have
 been avoided by moving. After con- cluding the inspection of the camp,
 Major Griffen was asked to make a
 statement concerning some criticisms
 of the hospitals made in Vermont
 newspapers by Frank A. Bailey, who had spent six weeks in the hospital nursing his brother. When he re- turned home he wrote an article say
 ing, among other things, that he had
 heard physicians in the hospitals tell
 attendants to give their attention to
 patients who had a chance of recovery and not nurse those who were sure to
 die, in the presence of those designat- ed of the latter class, and that he had heard other physicians instruct their
 helpers to give ice cold water with the
 view of finishing" their patients. Dr. Griffen pronounced as false all the statements made
 Dr. F. c. Craig, bacteriologist of the Sternberg hospital, was questioned es- pecially with reference to the water
 supply of the camp and expressed the opinion that the water taken from Chickamauga river through the pipe system was purer than that in the 1 wells and springs. He said he had found some sewer bacilli in one or two of the wells, though no typhoid germs, He had also found impurities in wa ter taken from some of the springs. He had made two analyses of the wa ter from the river, one before the July freshet and the other after it, and had found it to be entirely wholesome from bacteriological standpoint. It was muddy and he thought it should
 be filtered. He had also made tests | which convinced him that there was no danger of eddies carrying the wa ter of the Cave Spring creek into the
 pipes. Dr. Craig expressed the decid- ed opinion that common house files are capable of causing number of dis
 eases and carry typhoid germs upon | their feet.