Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-08-10
MEDICAL SECTION IS
PREPARING FOR TROOPS
Reports to State Council Of Defense
Show Close Study of Camp
Sanitation.
DIR. e. G.. WILLIAMS ON BOARD
State Health Commissioner Is Kept
In Close Touch With Plans OF
Army Sanitary officers at Canton
tents in Virginia.

The medical section OF the Council
Of Defense is rendering valuable SER
vice to the Federal and State govern
mcnts in the business of making the
camps in this State as sanitary as
possible.
4 minute study has been made or
the medical situation in this State. with
particular reference to the needs that
will be accentuatcd when the soldiers
arrive at the environments. Conditions
have been frankly reported to the
Washington authorities. and the advice
of the medical section Of the council
has been sought and followed in a
number of instances. DR.. Ennion G.
Williams, State Commissioner of
Health. is a m Of both the State
Council Of Defense and the medical sec
ton.
AS soon as the sites of the locations
of the environments for the national
army had been selected the surgeon
generals office of the War Department
sent to each camp an officer to invcsti-
gate and make improvements in the
sanitary conditions of the site and to
recommend any improvements that he
might find the local health authorities
were not able to carry out.
After the troops arrive at the camps
this medical officer will become the san
itary inspector of the troops, and will
be given three assistants to aid him in
III cStdbllSuHicll ol TclallOnS with tnc
local civil health officer that tho proper
cooperation may be had in regard to
improving the health conditions in the
districts Immediately surrounding the
camp. In addition to this, there will
be close cooperation. with a repre-
sentative of the Public Health Service.
who will supply to the sanitary in
spector reports of health conditions in
these outlying districts.
SANITARY OFFICERS
FOR EACH DIVISION
Following the organization of tho
division the work will continue under
the direction of the regular sanitary
organization which Is attached to the
troops. This consists of the divisional
surgeons who will be sanitary advisers
to the commanding general. a divi-
sional sanitary inspector and regular
surgeons who are sanitary officers in
their regiments, to assist the divisional
surgeons along special lines of sani-
tary work and in any emergency cases
that may arise. Sanitary squads are
also to be organized, and to consist of
officers and mon of specific training in
the publication of water supply, dis
posal of waste. disinfcction and the
handling of outbreaks Of
diseases.
Sanitary regulations for the guidance
Of the commanding md regular officers
of the army have been approved by
the war Department and are to be
published In the near future. These
arc expected to establish a standard
of sanitation for troops in the field.
and in connection with them will be
published "A set of notes which deal with
the control of communicable diseases,
whose preparation has hecn carefully
supervised by a number OF representa-
tive sanitarians of the country.
Attached to the surEeon-general's Of
flee will be maintained a corps of san
itary inspectors, through whose re-
ports the office expects to keep in
formed Of sanitary conditions and the
amount of disability in each camp. The
experience of the Medical Department
during the recent mobilization on the
border proves that confidence has
strengthened in recognized sanitary
procedures which have on the whole
stood the test of service on a large
scale.
The experience gained In the mobi-
l~ization of the militia has confirmed the
belief of medical officers in the almost
mathematical correspondence of Eff
hciently carried out s~anitations with
the general efficiency of troops for the
use of the nation. The sick report Is
considered an excellent index Of the
value of organization.