Doc. 2. army Sanitary Commission.
Statement of its operations.
among the objects to which the funds of the commission are applied are the following:
1. The employment of medical inspectors to visit the various camps, and to remedy the numerous sources of disease and danger that exist in all of them — as, for instance, defects in
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drainage and ventilation, in the quality or preparation of food, uncleanliness in tents and quarters, insufficiency of clothing, the situation of camps with reference to malaria, &c., &c., &c.
Six inspectors are now employed.
At least four times as many are required.
Their travelling and other expenses are estimated at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars per annum.
2. Inspectors are also needed at the general hospitals, to see that the volunteers are provided with every care and comfort that can be obtained.
The Commission also supplies these hospitals (to the extent of its means) with sundry medical and surgical appliances, extra hospital clothing and bedding, and various other articles not issued by Government, and employs additional nurses and dressers.
3. The Commission prints and circulates among the volunteers (both officers and men) rules to be observed in regard to sanitary points, and advice as to the means of preserving health while in the field.
It is in the daily receipt of stores of various kinds, clothing, bedding, &c., which are distributed from its office in Washington.
Funds are required to meet the expenses of their transportation and storage.
For means to carry out these objects the Commission relies wholly on the liberality of the community.
It does not apply to Government for funds, because its moral influence and power of usefulness would be destroyed by any real or supposed connection with political agencies; and also, because it could not expect to obtain from Government means sufficient for the work it has undertaken.
Geo. T. Strong, Treasurer. 68 Wall Street, New York, August 23, 1861.
