over and thought the camp, filling the tents and penetrating even the bedclothes. This matter was represented at the Surgeon-General's Office and sprinkling carts applied for. Eight of these were promptly sent down from Washington and were immediately and constantly made use of. They afforded great relief not only in subduing the dust but also in moderating the intense heat of the atmosphere. As an additional means high, broad bowers were built continuously along the ends of the tents on each side the streets. For purpose of drainage each group of tents was surrounded by a trench eight inches in depth. From these trenches the water is conducted into ditches which run parallel to and to each side of the streets, and terminate by means of still large ones in various irregular ravines with which the ground is broken and which descends rapidly to the river. This system has proved entirely effectual.

It is impossible, by merely quoting the register, to convey an accurate idea of the number of sick and wounded who have received attention in this hospital. At Fredericksburg, at White House, and still later at City Point,hundreds passed through under circumstances which rendered it impracticable to register their names or even to accurately estimate their number. These instances occurred during or immediately subsequent to an engagement, when the accumulation of wounded and the constant calls for professional labor sometimes made it necessary to transfer at once from the ambulances to the hospital transports. In fact, as I have already stated, so unremitting were the professional duties of the medical officers during the first fortnight at Fredericksburg, that it was impossible even to prepare morning reports, and it was not until the 16th of May that even a numerical report was attempted. From that date to the present daily reports have been forwarded, and they show that from the 16th of May, 1864, to October 31, 1864, there have been received into this hospital and retained here under treatment for at least forty-eight hours, 68,540 sick and wounded officers and men. Of these 51,313 have been transferred to the various U. S. general hospitals at the North, and 11,706 have been returned direct from this hospital to duty with their commands. One thousand five hundred and sixteen have died. A large potation or other capital operations at the immediately front, while in a great many other cases similar interference was still necessary. The experience here has given the most convincing evidence in favor of primary operations in gunshot wounds.

The majority of the sick received during the summer have suffered from dysentery, diarrhea, and malarial fevers. A small proportion of cases of typhoid fever have occurred and a very few, comparatively, of pneumonia and milder diseases of the chest. The manifestations of malarial influences have, as a general rule, been of a mild character, and evidently owing in great measure to the prolonged exposure and hard service to which the men have been subjected in the trenches. In fact, very many of these do not properly come under the head of either of the recognized classes of malarious fever, but were rather cases of a depressed condition not ineptly expressed by the term malarial malaise. A large proportion of these recovered rapidly and entirely under the influence of rest, cleanliness, and good nourishment, together with moderate administration of quinine and iron. A number of cases have arisen within the limits of the encampment, but not in sufficient number or of sufficient severity to impair the efficiency of the hospital or to throw any doubt upon the propriety of its establishment