The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-19

today, using the official room of Gen.
eral Dodge's private car for this pur
pose. Colonel Louis Maus, chief sur
geon OF the Seventh army corps, was
the first witness sworn He is a regu-
lar army surgeon, and has occupied
this petition 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 devel-
oped slowly, and there was very little
of it until July.
he said that when the order came
Tor the establishment of division hos
~ pitfalls there was some delay in getting
supplies, such as tents. He at first made
his acquisitions on Tampa, but finding
that all efforts were directed to getting
the expedition off, he made his requisi-
tons upon Washington direct. After
this they were promptly filled. There
was no suffering among the sick. Still
they did not have the luXuries at the
beginning of the war that there were
in the latter days of it. Nor" added
the doctor, do l think that in the his
tory Of. the world has ever seen a par
allel TO OUT present care of the sick"
Taking up the present condition of
the hospitals. he said there were 300
trained female nurses now at work
i-|A 4NCP4glLiS W d NuSSAAOl4s LII -1ci0S
said that after the first few days there
had been no refusal of supplies, and
all acquisitions had been filed prompt
~. He had never seen such utter dis
regard Of expense in caring for sick
soldiers. He also said the Red Cross
society has given so much that it was
often unnecessary to ask the govern
ment for supplies. There had been no
restrictions in the matter of fitting out
the camps.
He thought the typhoid had been in
troduced into camp by Mississippi and
Virginia troops. Shallow wells and
surface drainage had done much to-
ward the scourge, but he was confident
that the regular water supply of the
city had not been in any way respon-
sible fer it. He also thought the flies
had done much to disseminate fever.
From the beginning strict attention
had been given the sinks. He had never
in his life seen such attention given to
sanitation in any camp, but despite this
care typhoid broke out and became the
principal sickness here.
DR. Maus said he had found it diff
cult to prevail upon surgeons in the
volunteer service to learn the admin
istrative duties of their positions. AS
q matter of fact, these duties were eX-
tremely onerouS, and for this reason
the volunteer physicians were not so
6DlCltnI DIS llltN SllOulA nave DGtAl VI
ten also in the early history of the war
some of the volunteer regimental sur
geons had been found negligent in the
matter of inspection, but later on sani-
tation became the principal duty of
everybody about the camp.
Much trouble has been experienced
in keeping the public from the hospit-
ais. In many cases they had surrep-
titiouSly carried food to the sick. DR..
Maus also dwelt upon the newspaper
reports of the suffering in the camp,
saying they had generally grown out of
exaggerated statements from them
selves. DIR. Maus mentioned one in
stance in which serious illness had fol-
lowed the use of tainted meat, and said
he had heard of a few other instances
in which poor meat had been issued. /
Still, these cases were rare and no more |
frequent than should be expected.
DIR. Conner questioned Mr.. Maus |
about the acceptance of outside aid and |
quoted a report from Colonel Guild, in
action of the Red Cross society the |
sick would have been without essential |
supplies for two months.
That statement" said DR.. Maus. lis !
utterly false. The government would /
have supplied them if the Red Cross
had not
DR.. Maus also denied the truth of a
statement made by the governor of
Iowa that there was only one nurse in
charge of 16 typhoid patients. He said,
however, that the nurses sent by the
governor of Iowa had been accepted, not
because the government was negligent,
but because they could be utilized
DR.. Maus was questioned in regard to
the camp at Miami. He said he had
it and found it TO be un-
suitable on account of the water, which |
an analysis had shown to be impure.
He also thought Tampa unsuited to a
arge camp. He said, in response to a
criticism from Jacksonville lady, that
General Lee had given the most careful
attention to the hospitals: that he made
frequent visits TO the sick men and did
much to cheer them up.
Mrs. Gordon, wife of General w. w.
Gordon, in relation to the hospital at
Miami, sent letter in which she made ;
serious charges, among them one to
he effect that a hospital nurse had be-
,ome intoxicated and set fire to q pa
tents bed, burning him somewhat,
md another that flies were often found
into the mouths of dying pa
tents.
DR.. Maus had a report from DR.. Villas.
n charge of the hospital, read, admit
ing the statement concerning the burn
ng OF a patients bed, but denying all
thers. DR.. Maus expressed the opinion |
hat the charges We're exaggerated. ,
Colonel Oliver L. Wood. chief com .
nissary at Camp Cuba Libre. under )
seneral Lee. was before the commits ;
ion at its afternoon session. He had.
lie said, fully and completely met All
eqUisitions made upon him for sup
lies, and there had never been any !
7ck of them. At first there had been :
rouble with the bacon. and about l5.- :
90 pounds Of it had been spoiled. and :
therefore, condemned and ordered de- G
troyed. There also had been weevils :
4 some of the bread and some of the q
ard bread, but it had never been is
ued when found to be bad. d
As a rule the meat was excellent q
nd in cases where the meat was I
poiled the contractors had replaced it a
-ithout requiring official condemna- v
on. Yet it was necessary, either to n
ook refrigerator meat or put it on o
e in order TO prevent it spelling in t
lis climate. In this connection Colo
el Wood read a letter he had written
} General Lee. in response to a COM
laint made by Colonel W. J. Bryan
lncerning the beef. In his letter he r
lid if beef was spoiled it was gem h
ally due TO the most criminal negli- a
ance OF regiment and company Off
srs. q
Captain Chauncey V. Baker, chief a.
lartermaster, was also examined dur 81
Y the afternoon session. He had been
Jacksonville from the beginning of lie
le camp on the Isl of May, but at that g
me was quartermaster for the Second IN
rps. He said that when he arrived ~
e command was short of all kinds of a
ores, and that he had been unable
the beginning to meet all requisi-
ons for supplies when made by the
giments, until they arrived Captain