Evening star., 1914-07-11

broad basis of it all was laid by Letter.
man.
When the civil war broke out DR. Let.
terman was thirty-six years old and had
been an army sur
Plan Proposed seon for twelv.
by DR.. Letterman. years .,,,s ne ma. mao
ice AGAINST the Seminole Indians in Flor
ida. and in the wars of the far west
AGAINST the NavaJos and the ella
Apaches. When he Joined the Army Of
the Potomac Gen. Mcclellan reported:
Supplies have been almost exhausted or
necessarily abandoned. hospital tents
abandoned or destroyed. and the medical
officers deficient in numbers or broken
down 10y disease"
Letterman then proceeded to put into
effect the idea he had long nursed In
his mind. namely. that the care OF the
wounded In battle and their transpor-
tation of the neld could be done with
the same skill and precision that gov
erned the movements of cavalry. In
fantry or artillery. This led him 10
organize ambulance corps and set 40
field hospitals In way shat had never
been done before. His assistants for
the most part were physicians who
lad left civil life but year before.
hut they rallied most loyalty and ef-
ficiently to his support. Freeing the
Medical Corps from the dominance of
with the recognition of the right of
medical officers to perform their duties
without interference from officers of
the line. were other notable reforms
man was adopted later by the entire
Union army. He soon
Chance Is Given had an opportunity to
a4 put II TO a test in the
great battle of Ante
tam. the bloodiest of the war. The battle
line extended six miles and there We're
l20Oo wounded Every one was taken of
the field and attended to within twenty
four hours. This was a new record in
war. and the ambulance corps was fx-
ture. The new field hospital system did
not do so we'll The battle of Fredericks-
burg came along three months later.
There were lo.a1 Federal wounded. and
| the ambulances could not go the field
of the Union defeat until nightfall BY
| daylight. twelve hours later. all were in
tents, and another record had been made.
The disease that our forces in Mexico
must face whether it be a brigade or any
number of corps. are dysentery, typhoid
fever, malaria. yellow fever and typhus.
The last named two. at one time the most
dreaded pestilences of armies, are now
to be faced with little terror as small
pox strikes us TODAY. The causes OF both
are now known. They are encountered
in the open. Their day as snpers" has
passed Yellow fever science knows. is
due to the bite of a mosquito. Typhus
fever, once the most conta gious of all
diseases. is caused by the bite of a louise
The only way to fight these diseases is
to have them whipped at the start. This
is done only by elaborate precautions
from the very beginning. followed by rigid
daily inspections. 1t is the old IAN ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure .
theory reduced to its last analysis This
method has been in full operation with
signal success for the two years that
our troops have been massed on the
Mexican border and it is in daily use
now at Vera Cruz. No other army in
the world is keener the efficacy OF
medical and sanitary preparedness than
| is our own.
| Clean food potable water. hacterially
inspected milk. vaccination. anti-typhoid
inoculation. rap
| ADOPTION of Means id and thorough
x, disposal of camp
W AASSSA'S W a S e every
morning, the use of incinerators. trenches.
etc. and the instruction of officers and
men along sanitary lines-these are the
means by which our Army Medical Corps
is preserving the health of our boys at