The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-19
SICK WE'LL CARED FOR.
DR.. Maus Testifies Before the In.
yestigation Board.
COMMISSION NOW HOLDING SES-
SIONS IN JACKSONVILLE.

Surgeon Says There Were Luxuries in
| Plenty and 1t Was Easy to Get Them
Volunteer Surgeons We're Not Eff
| cient,
| Jacksonville, Fla, October 1S.-The
war investigation commission held three
days sessions with the general staff off,
GERS of the 7th army corps, and at night
hearing the testimony of officers and men
of the second South Carolina regiment
The subcommittee consisting of Gen.
Wilson and Capt. Howell to Investigate
the selection of Fernandina as n camp,
returned tonight and reported their ap.
proval Of the selection.
They made special inquiry into the re-
port that the camp had been located there
for the purpose of enhancing the value of
land owned by son of Secretary Alger,
going through the county records as part
of their work. They failed to find his
name in any Of these documents and their
investigation convinced them that he had
oinity or had been in any way interested
in any.
Jacksonville, Fla, October 1s.-The
war Investigating commission began the
examination Of witnesses at Jacksonville
today, using the Office room Of Gen.
Dodge's pri vate car for this purpose Col.
Louis NJ, Maus, chief surgeon of the 7th
army cosps was the first witness. Ee is
regular army surgeon and has occupied
| his present position practically through
out the history of the campaign. He said
| there was only a small field hospital when
he arrived in May and there were very
few slck men. Sickness developed very
slowly and there was very little of itiun-
| til July. He said that when the order
came for the establishment of division
hospitals there was some delay in getting
supplies, such as tents. He made his re-
quisitions on Tampa, but finding that
all efforts were directed to getting the ex
petition of he made his requisitions upon
Washington direct. After this they were
promptly filled. There was no suffering
among the sick. Still they did not have
the luxuries atSthe beginning of the war
that there was in the latter days of it.
.sNor,' added the doctor, "do think
that the history of the world has ever seen
a parallel to our present care OF the sick. -
Taking up the present condition OF hos
| pitfalls, he said there were 800 trained te-
male nurses at work here. He said the
employment of these nurses has proven
entirely satisfactory. Replying to qEes-
tion, DR.. Maus said that after the first
few days there had been no refusal OF
supplies and that all acquisitions had
been filled with exceptional prompt1tude.
He had never seen such utter disregard
| of expense inScaring for the sick soldiers.
As q matter of fact the troops had great
er allowance of rations than 5hey could
use. He said the Red Cross. society had
given SO much that 1t was often unneces-
sary to ask the government for supplies.
There had been no restrictions in the
matter of fitting out the camps. he
thought typhoid had been introduced in to
the camp by Mississippi and Virginia
troops. Shallow wells and surface drain
age had done much to increase 1t, but ne
was confident the regular water upply
of the city had not been in any sense re-
sponsible for it. He also thought the flies
had done much to disseminate fever.
/ From the beginning very strict attention
had been given to the sinks. He had nev-
or in his life seen such attention given
to sanitation in a camp, but despite this
care, typhoid broke out He said he had
found it difficult to prevail upon sur
aeons in the volunteer service to learn the
administrative duties of the position.
AS a matter of fact these duties were ex-
tremely onerous and for this reason the
volunteer physicians were not so efficient
as they should have been. Often in the
ear history of the awar some sof the
to1 1,,1rsv ho6 hppr
found negligent in the matter OF 1nspec-
tion, but later on sanitation had become
the principal duty of everyb body about
the camp. Much trouble had been expert
enced in keeping the public from the
hospitals. In many cases they had sur
reptitiously carried fooH to the sick. Dr.
Maus also dwelt upon the newspaper re-
ports of the suffering in the camp. saying
they had generally grown out OF exag-
gerated statements, from the men Them
selves.
DR.. Maus said that in the history of the
camp there had been 2S4 deaths out OF
81. 600 men. and that about 80 per cent of
the deaths had been from fever. He
thought the fever was now decreasing.
He mentioned one instance in which serl-
GUS sickness had followed the use of faint
ed meat and said he had heard OF few
other instances in which poor meat had
been issued. Still, these cases were rare,
land no more frequent than should be
expected, DR.. Connor questioned DIR. Maus
about the acceptance of outside aid and
quoted a report from Col. Guild, 1nspec-
tor general, saying that but for the action
of the Red Cross society the SICK wouio
have been without essential supplies for
two months. RI.
"That statement, said DR.. Maus, 'is
utterly false The government would
have supplied them if the Red Cross had
not.''
of Camp Cuba Libre, under command of
Gen, Lee. was before the commission at
it's afternoon session. He said that he
had occupied this position since May 2lst,