The age-herald., 1898-09-01

1 attendants here, both officers and men, l have worked with great persistence, and 1 until % per cent of the hospital corps has 1 fallen sick from it's labors.
 l For the last six weeks there has been no l difficulty whatever in obtaining medical 1 supplies of every character The Red Cross has made liberal donations to this hospital The hospital fund for July
 amounted to s415, and with that 1t has | needed
 l Taking up the last of the field hospitals,
 that of the Third corps, Second division,
 under Major Smith, the report states that l the nfty-three tents are at present not all
 occupied, although during the epidemic of l measles they were crowded. There were no Red Cross nurses, and detail of ladies 1 rom the Chattanooga association has vis- l tied the hospital daily to cook the lighter | food for the sick. When the hospital was | crowded the number of attendants was l insufficient.
 Strong Complaints. There. were also strong complaints of the l failure to get medical and surgical supplies l in the early days before the government | had been able to furnish itself, and when 1t
 was impossible to avoid delays incident to l rushing supplies to great army camps. The requisitfon papers on file, however, show
 that the hospital officers made effort to ob- tain full supplies.
 Leaving the details about the hospitals, the report proceeds to treat the whole sub Ject generally as follows:
 Tn two of the hospitals opportunities oc- cured for discovery of what undoubtedly originated many of the sensational stories which have been printed over the country to the effect that patients in the hospitals lacked sufficient food, and in many cases had been on the verge of starvation In the wards where the convalescent typhoid fever patients were found many of the men Trrlr Aaofo fIxVa rIrf fAr Foo nd a matter of course were denied everything ex- cept the lighter forms of food, which can alone be safely administered to recovering typhoid fever patients This refusal of food throughout the hospitals, by which case alone, as is perfectly understood, can the lives of typhoid convaescents be saved has been distorted into the cry which has been spread throughout the country that pa tients were being starved in the government hospitals
 Ut will be observed that the conditions set forth in this report are mainly present con- ditions. It has not heretofore fallen in the range of my views to make critical observa- tions of hospital conditions. although, as matter of course, many features of this dt- vision of camp administration have fallen under my notice, I am constrained to be- leve that there has been no neglect either
 on the part of the medical or quarrermastsr
 departments to furnish such supplies as
 have reached the camp
 Tt will be observed that the report has
 been made with fsfsrepcS to 9 s9s the naxlmg,.mn 1,.n
 ,-s IL was possible to opfsih the Conditions
 then existing they afe set forth in this re-
 port. Undoubtedly there has been serious
 inconveniences and at times of greatest
 crowdng, those lacks of conveniences and
 full attendance which go to make up that
 painful condition of affairs, which, as every veteran knows, are inseparable from the field hospitals of great armies. Were Not Negligent. "So far from believing, as a result of my observations, that medical officers have been heartless or negligent l believe that these officers and the hospital attendants as a whole have exerted themselves to dis charge their duties faithfully. It would seem as if this were sufficiently shown by the fact that they have worked unceas- ingly until a quarter of the whole force has itself been stricken by disease result ing from their exhausting labors. My attention was especially directed; in the order which received to some remarks credited to General Terry, surgeon general of the state of New York, in reference to the camp of the Eighth New York. Gen. eral Terry Is reported in the New York Herald to have said as he was leaving Camp Thomas: General Terry found the camp in a bad sanitary condition. It Is situated in an open field in the hot sun, with no water to be found within five miles. The water the men drink is hauled in bar .els, and is of a kind that in New York would be refused as bathing water. This stuff is what the men drink daily, and is declared to be the chief cause of the sick ness.
 "General Terry told me that it was the most terrible sight he had ever witnessed; and not in the slums of New York city could be found place so filthy and dirty. He said he would insist on the Eighth regi- ment being returned to New York; and had wired Governor Black and the secretary of war of the situation.
 "If the soldiers are not soon taken from Chickamauga they will soon follow the twenty-four who died yesterday and nearly as many today.
 and badly located. Nourishing food is lack ing as well as proper medical attention The food is regular army rations, badly cooked. More than 200 patients have often been made to get along with 150 narrow cots They are simply laid on filters not six inches from the ground. Few, if any, of the hospital tents have plank floors This camp was removed to the open field at the special request of the officers concerned, as they were inclined to think that their camp in the open woods had somethinr to do with the increasing sick ness of their men. Here it may be perti- nent to remark in passing, that this regi- ment had at the time of its moving and had maintained one of the hlthiest ana most disgusting canteens to be found in the entire army From personal observation of this canteen, some two weeks since, am prepared to assert that It was little pet ter than serving beer to the soldiers of the eight New York in a hog pen. It Is also true that the reports show since this regi- nent moved, it's health conditions have im- proved.
 Springs of Clear Water. ..Instead of there being no water within five miles of the regiment, two of the larg- est springs of clear water in this entire country, pronounced by competent medical and chemical authority to be pure water are less than two miles from their camp. "The Eighth New York has been camped unon the ground where General Terry ob- served 1t less than ten days. It was per- fectly clean ground when they occupied 1t; | 1t had not been previously occupied by any troops If 1t had been transformed within this brief period by the troops of the Eighth New York into place hlthier and