The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-22
AN IMPORTANT COMPARISON
DEPTHS FROM SICKNESS IN THE
 LAST TWO VARS.
Deputy Surgeon-General Smart Shows From Official Statistics That In Five Months of the War With Spain 1O.21 Men Out of Every 1000 Were Lost and in the Civil War 17.31 Out of Like Number.
unlber.

mch Vut OI hSeEy I,Ooo "eEe Aoss anu
 in the Civil War 17.3I Out of Like
 Number.
 Washington, Nov. 21.-Colonel Charles Smart, deputy surgeon general of the army, has sent the following to Sur seon General Sternberg comparing the deaths from sickness in the war with Spain and in the civil war: Tn reply to your inquiry l can very promptly state that the sickness and mortality during the war with Spain was not relatively so great as that from which our volunteer troops suffered during the civil war. Time has duled the national memory of what happened in the days of the civil war, perhaps the remem- brance of those times remains fresher with myself than with most others, not because I was with the troops in the field until the end came at Appammat- tox, for many others had a full eXper- fence in army life, but because it after ward became my duty and high prlvi- lege to spend over three years of my life in studying the records of sickness while compiling the third part of the volume of the medical and surgical S. tory of the war. That history is on our shelves and by referring to it we may at any time find out how diarrhoea and dysentery, typhoid fever and ma- larial disease swept through our camps and sent their thousands to the hospi- tals and to their graves. We may also compare the deaths recorded by the officers of the present time and should we do so we would find overwhelming testimony to the effect that any differ ences in the percentage of deaths from battle casualties, and from disease are not due to the greater prevalence and fatality of disease, but to the number of sanguinary battlefelds of the. civil war.
 In April, 1861, President Lincoln call ed for 75,C00 volunteers, but it was not until after July 22 when his call for 50o,- 900 was made that we had armies com parable in size with those recently in existence. Beginning then with July, 1861, when we had medical reports from regiments aggregating only 1s,161 men and including August, September, Cc- tober and November, five months, we find recorded a loss by death of 3,075 men. More deaths occurred than were reported, for some surgeons failed to send in reports; but the probabilities are that had the missing reports been forthcoming the deaths would have con- tinued to have the same proportion to the reported strength.
 In April 1893, President Mckinley called for 125,000 men and later for T5,000 men, which, with an increase in the regular army and the immune and other special regiments made total of over 270,000 men. Beginning with May, 1898, for which month we have madical reports in the office of the surgeon gen. eral of the army from regiments agsre- gating 151,655 men and including June, July, August and September, five months, we find on file loss by death of only 1715 men reported by medical officers in an average strength of 167, 16.S men or 10.21 deaths out of every thousand men during that period of five months. More deaths occurred than were reported, but the probabilities are that with the missing reports the ad- ditional deaths would be associated with a proportionate increase of the strength of the army.
 According then to the testimony of every medical officer who has placed himself on record then and now, we lost in the five months of the war with Spain 1021 men out of every thousand reported present by the medical officers serving with them and in the first five months of the war of the rebellion 1731 out of every thousand similarly reported present. This is interesting but it is still more so if we look a little more into the details of these reports. During the month of May last the death rate was low 46 it was some what higher in June, 70 or the equiva- lent of an annual rate of S.4 per thou sand. In July it rose to 2.15 for the month or the equivalent of an annual rate of 25.S per thousand. In August. owing to the rapid spread of typhoid fever in the camps and to the broken down condition of General Shafters corps it reached 40S, equivalent to an annual rate of 1896, such as was com mon in cities before the era of munich pal sanitatiol..
 The war department immediately rut forth it's energies to remedy this con- dition of affairs and with such efficacy that the death rate in September fell to 2.45. If it be claimed that this fall ing off was due to the fact that the typhoid infection had done it's worsr and that irrespective of all sanitary measures, the death rate would have fallen owing to the exhaustion of sus- ceptible material we have merely to consider what was the history of our civil war camps subsequent to Novem- Der 1, 1861, when, as I have stated, the number of deaths had already amount ed to 17.31 per thousand of the strength of these participating. In that month, November, the rate was 4.S3, somewhat more than our maximum month, Aug ust last During January, 1862, the ravages of disease continued, 65A men having been swept away by death or ASA out of every thousand of these present. In February the rate was 4.79 and in March SOS In April last the continuation was reached when 3331 deaths were reported, constituting a death rate for the month of SAP per thousand, rate twice as high as that reported from our camps in August las.
 This is a startling record. Mortality from disease reached it's maximum in