The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-11-23
ARMY'S HEALTH,
Gen. Sternberg Tells Why It was
Not Better.
Annual Report of the Surgeon General
Contains Some Interesting State-
ments Regarding the Medical
Corps, Nurses, the Camps
and Their Sanitary
Conditions.

Washington, Nov. 21.-Surgeon Gem
eral Sternberg has made his report to
the secretary of war. 1t relates main
ly to the work of the medical corps
during the war. He says; The num-
ber of medical officers-192- allowed
by law to the army is inadequate in
time of peace. The INSULT eiency in
time of war was met by the assign
ment of over $50 contract surgeons
No provision was made for hospital
corps men for the volunteer troops ex-
cept that which empowered the'secre
tary of war to enlist as many privates
of the hospital corps as the service
may require. The number of men en-
listed and transferred during the war
was about 5000. The want of sufi-
cient body of trained hospital corps
men necessitated the detail of enlisted
men for hospital duty in several camps
and the employment of trained nurses
at the general hospitals. Over 1,7OO
female nurses were employed.
Immediately upon the declaration of
war, April 81, steps were taken to OBJ
tain medical supplies for the volunteer
army. On May 8 l telegraphed the gov
ernors of the several states for author
ity to use the medical equipment of
the national guard in the service of
the state until our army medical sup
plies were ready for issue. Most of
the governors who had field equipment
responded promptly, but many of the
state medical departments had no such
equipment.
Long before the Fifth corps en-
barked for Cuba its field hospitals
were fit for efficient service. Subse-
quent events, however, rendered val
ueless these preparations of the medi-
cal department. When the command
embarked ON the transports the bag
gage wagons and mules were left be-
hind. The ambulance trains of all the
divisions, with large part of the out
fit of each of the hospitals, were also
left behind.
Whenever notice was received from
the adjutant generals Office that com
mands were to be moved or camps
formed, l endeavored to anticipate the
wants of the troops by telegraphing to
the officer in charge of the nearest
supply depot to forward supplies for
the stated number of men.
In my opinion the reduction of the
age limit from 81 to IS years and the
haste with which the volunteer regi-
ments were mustered into the service
were responsible for much of the sick
ness in the early days of their camp
life. All military experience shows
that young men under 81 years break
down readily under the strain of war
service, and every regiment had many
of these youths.
Soon after the newly raised levies |
were aggregated in large camps sick
ness began to increase from causes
that were SO general in their operation |
that scarcely regiment escaped from |
their harmful influence. These causes
may largely be referred to ignorance
on the part of officers of the principles |
of camp sanitation and of their duties |
as regards the welfare of the men.
The sites of certain of the camps |
have been instaDced in the newspapers |
as the cause of the sickness which de- |
veloped in them, but it was not the |
site but the manner of it's occupation |
which must be held responsible for
the general spread of disease among
the troops. April 25, foreseeing the
likelihood of insanitary conditions in
the camps, issued circular impress
ing upon medical officers their respon-
sibility in sanitary matters, and the
necessity for strict sanitary police,
in the care of the sinks |
and in the preservation of the camp
area from contamination. But the
density of the military population on
the area of these contracted camps
prevented good sanitary conditions.
Practically nothing was done to
make the men comfortable or to
re1edy the unsanitary conditions until
these were brought to the attention of |
the secretary of war by inspectors
sent out from the war department. |
Then the camps were abandoned, but |
not before typhoid infection was rife
in them. New sites were carefully |
selected, regimental camps were ex-
panded, company tentage increased |
and board flooring provided. Then for
the first time the troops went into
camps suitable for continued occupa-
tion.
One prominent cause of the increase |
Of sickness in the early camps has been |
upon by only a few of our |
medical officers. These cite the preva-
lence of drunkenness and venereal dis |
ease due to the temptations afforded |
by the proximity of cities to the larger
camps. They hold that if the systems
Of the men had not been weakened by |
they would not have sue |
,umbed so readily to the other infiu- |
ences which affected them.
D 1t is needless to refer to the COM
plants of starvation which appeared |
almost daily in the newspapers during |
the occupation of Camp Wikoff, for 1t |
IS now generally understood that the |
prostration and emaciation
of so many troops were the results of |
nalarial, typhoid and yellow fever,
rom which the army suffered as a
of its exposure to the
influences and local infections
of Santiago.
Mountains AHame.
Il