The herald., 1898-10-19
one NURSE GOT DRUNK
AND BURNED A PATIENT IN Hrs
BED
THE FLIES TEAsED THE DYING
Little Things Like That Gave Rise to
Exaggerated Reports Of Neglect
Of Sick Soldiers
Associated Press Special Wire.

ASSOCldteu 1IeSS 0pcCl0A VhS'
JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Oct. ls.--Thc
War Investigating Commission continued
examination Of witnesses at Jacksonviiie
today. 49,,
Colonel Louis Maus, chief surgeon OF the
ness sworn.
He is a regular army surgeon and has oc-
cupied this position practically throughout
the history of the camp. He said there was
only "A small field hospital when he arrived
in May and there were not very many SICK
men. Sickness developed slowly and there
was very little of it until July. ne said
that when the order came for the estaolish'
ment OF divisional hospitals there was tr3u-
BILE in getting some supplies: ne made ms
requisitions on Tamps, but, finding that
ali efforts were devoted to getting the ex-
pedition off, 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
Injuries at the beginning of the war that
No" added the doctor, T do not think
the history Of the world has ever seen
parallel to our present care OF the SICK.
I1e said there We're 800 trained female
nurses now at work here.
Replying to question, Mr.. Maus said that
after the first few days there had been no
refusal of supplies and all requisitions had
been filled promptly. He had never seen
such utter disregard of expense in caring for
sick soldiers He also said the Red Cross
Society has given so much that 1t was often
unnecessar.to ask the government for sup
plies. There had been no restrictions in
the matter of fitting out the camps.
He thought typhoid fever had been intro
duced into camp by Mississippi and Virginia
troops. Shallow wells and surface drainage
had done much toward the scourge, but he
was confident that the regular water supply
of the city had not been in any way re-
sponsible for it. He also thought the flies
had done much to disseminate fever. From
the beginning of the camp attention had
been given to the sinks;
and had become the principal sickness here.
DR.. Maus said he had found it difficult to
prevail upon surgeons in the volunteer SER
vice to learn the administrative duties of
their positions.
As a matter of fact, these duties are ex-
tremely onerous and for this reason the
volunteer physicians were NOT 50 efficient
as they should have been. Dr.. Maus also
dwelt upon the newspaper reports of suffer
ing in the camp, saying they had generally
grown out of exaggerated statements from
themselves. DR.. Maus mentioned one in
stance in which serious illness had followed
the use of tainted meats and said he had
heard of few other instances in which poor
meat had been issued.
DR.. Connor questioned DR.. Maus about
the acceptance Of outside aid and quoted a
report from Colonel Guild, inspector gen.
eral, saying that but for the action Of the
Red Cross society the sick would have been
without essential supplies for two months
That statement, said DR.. Maus, is utterly
false. The government would have supplied
h. D4I 1nI v%~A
DR.. Maus was questioned in regard to the
camp at Miami. He said he had investigated
il. and found it to be unsuitable on account
of the water, which analysis had shown to
be impure. He also thought Tampa un-
suitable for large camp. He said in re-
sponse to q criticism from Jacksonville
lady. that General Lee had given the most
had made frequent visits to the sick men
and did much to cheer them up.
Mrs. Gordon, wife of General w. w. Cor.
don, in relation to the hospital at Miami,
sent letter in which she made serious
charges, among them one to the effect that
a hospital nurse had become intoxicated and
set fire to a patients bed, burning him
somewhat, and another that flies were often
found crawling into the mouths of dying pa
tients. DR.. Maus had report from DR..
Villas, in charge Of the hospital, read, admit
ting the statement concerning the burning
OF patients bed, but denying all others.
Or. Maus expressed the opinion that the
charges were exaggerated.
Col. Oliver 2. Wood, chief commissary at
Camp Cuba Libre under General Lee, was
heard this afternoon. He had, he said,
fully and completely met all acquisitions
made upon him for supplies, and there had
never been any lack of them. At first there
had been trouble with the bacon and about
1900 pounds of it had been spoiled and was
therefore condemned.
AS rule, the meat was excellent, and in
cases where. the meat was not good, the
contractors had replaced it without requir-
ing official condemnation. Yet it was neces-
sary either to cook refrigerator meat or put
it on ice in order to prevent it spelling in
this climate. In this connection Colonel
Wood read a letter he had written to Gener-
al Lee in response to a complaint made by
Col. W. j. Bryan concerning the beef, and
in this letter he said that if the beef was