The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-19
WOMEN NURSES.
Gen. sternburg Says He Was Not Hostile
to Them.

washington, Oct. 1S.-The board of
investigation has received the following
communication from Surgeon General
Sternberg:
Il have the honor to transmit here
with documents relating to the en-
ployment of female nurses during the
war with Spain, and to my attitude to-
ward the American National Red Cross
and other relief organizations. 1t has
been repeatedly charged in the newspa-
pers that have refused to accept the
assistance Of the American National
Red Cross in the care of our sick and
wounded soldiers, and that, as result
of This refusal, there has been unnec-
essary suffering.
"These charges are without founda-
ton, except in so far as L have OBJ
jected to the sending of female nurses
with troops in the field engaged in ac-
tive operations. We have a Red Cross
hospital corps in the army of enlist
ed men, whose duty it is to render the
first aid to the wounded upon the field
of battle, and to care for the sick in
our division field hospitals, and / have
been of the opinion that female nurses
would be an incumbranee to the troops
during active operations; but so soon
as serious sickness developed in our
camps and it became necessary to treat
typhoid fever cases in our field hos
pitfalls, gladly accepted the services
of the trained female nurses for the
division field hospitals, and in our gem
eral hospitals we have employed them
from the first.
THE general testimony from the
surgeons in charge of these hospitals
has been that their services have been
of great value. Very many of these
trained nurses have been obtained
through the kind assistance of the Red
cross Society for the Maintenance of
Trained Nurses Auxiliary No 8, and I
desire to express my high appreciation
of the valuable services rendered to the
medical department of the army by
this organization.
committee of the American Ma
tlonal Red Cross Association called
upon me in my Office in Washington
some time in advance Of the landing
or our troops at Santiago, making an
offer OF assistance. I received them
most courteously, and advised them to
use their resources in fitting up a hos
pital ship, telling them that a hospi-
tai ship was now being fitted up for
use of the medical department, but that
1t was not at all improbable that an
emergency would arise which would
overtaX our resources, and that in such
an event, a hospital ship, properly
equipped, having on board a corps of
doctors and nurses, would be a most
valuable auxiliary.
Furthermore, the American National
Red Cross Association has had full au-
thority to send agents and supplies to
all Of our camps since June 9, 1898, and
il there has been suffering for want of
needed supplies, they must share the
responsibility with the medical Depart
ment of the army for such suffering.
There has been a great deal Of mis-
apprehension with reference to the
supplies furnished by the government,
growing out of the fact that medical
officers in the field have been very
ready to accept supplies from relief as
sociations. which were freely offered
and even urged upon them rather than
to make requisition for them The
volunteer medical officers especially APP
pear to have had a great reluctance to
assume any property responsibility,
! and, as it was necessary for them to
give receipts for the supplies issued to
them by the government, they pre-
ferred as a rule to accept these sup
plies from relief societies even when
| they were present in ample amounts in
field supply depots in the immediate
vicinity of their camps.
1.-THE agents furnishing these supplies
| frequently inferred, from the fact that
| they were so readily accepted.
that they could not have been obtained
from the government. Thus sheets, cots.
clinical thermometers and many other
articles, which are upon our supply
table, have been literally supplied by
| these relief associations although II
has been the intention of the medical
| department to furnish these and all
other articles necessary for the care
of our sick, and there has been no
time since the beginning of the war
when they could not be obtained upon
a Geographic requisition sent to the
surgeon general of the army, if, for any
reason, sufficient supply was not on
hand at the field supply depot"