Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-05-11
IN STROf c TERMS.
Conduct Of Volunteer Army Surgeons
Is Criticised by One of Surgeon Gem
eraI Stermbcr.,s Assistants,

Ni"h =
Washington, May 1.-The session of
the Association of American Physicians
held here Wednesday was marked by
an important paper on typhoid fever
in the volunteer camps by DR.. V. e..
Vaughn, one of the board of surgeons
appointed by Surgeon General Stern
berg last summer to look into this
matter when the epidemic of typhoid
was prevalent in the various camps. The
board made a thorough study of the
subject and its report has been looked
forward to as an authoritative work
The report is not yet completed, but
DIR. Naughn's paper was in the nature
OF an advance statement, with the sane
ton of Gen. Sternberg, who was pres
ent at the meeting.
DR.. Naughn's paper was a severe ar
raignment of the volunteer surgeons
and incidentally of the officers who
were responsible for the policing of the
great camps at jacksonville, Chiclla-
mauga, Camp Alger and Montauk
Point. The board visited all these
points and found that not only was
;here a great deal more typhoid than
was at first supposed, but that the sur
geons. mostly of the volunteer class,
We're, from ignorance or other motives,
treating and reporting typhoid under
the names of persistent malaria" I'm
Digestion" gastric fever" and ''typho-
malaria Blood examination of many
of the malaria" patients failed to show
The presence of the malaria bacillus.
but there was every indication of we'll
marked typhoid. These patients were
being treated with quinine and natural
" either died or had TO be sent to city
hospitals. where their disease was prop
erly diagnosed.
The board made an extra careful eX-
animation of the water supply of the
various camps and found that the prev
alcnce of typhoid could not be laid to
impure water in any large degree. The
explanation, DR.. Vaughn said, was in
the dis"ustingly filthy condition of the
camps. where the eXcreta of typhoid
patients was strewn broadcast. with
no apparent effort either to sterilize it
or collect it so as to prevent its spread
ing conta9ion to the remainder of the
camp.
Gen. Sternber@ referred to the ap-
pOintment of volunteer medical army
officers of the governors of states. the
former thereby becoming responsible
for the health of our camps. The re-
suit had been unsatisfactory. II seemed
to him to be inconsistent that we
should set ourselves up to show the
Spaniards how TO eradicate yellow fever
from their cities while our camps are
infected seriously with typhoid. He
declared that any adverse conditions
which prevailed at Montauk should not
be held against the regular army medi-
cal officers. few of whom were there.
DIR. George Dock. of the university of
Michigan. spoke of his investigations at
the Sternber% general hospital. The
Misunderstanding regarding the symp-
toms of typhoid and the over-estima-
tion of the effects of quinine form,
DR.. Dock declared, the striking faults
of the volunteer medical service. Most
of the volunteer medical officers went
TO camp with the expectation Of fight
ing no end of malaria. In O-e regi-
mcnt each man was provided with 200
grains of quinine and a three-ounce
bottle of parcgoric. The great bulk of
supposed malarial cases We're not ma
larial infections at all. but many of the
doctors. regardless of this, doSed their
patients with SO to 40 grains of quinine
each 1aV