Medical and hospital department, 1884: Total to be accounted for.. Disbursed during the year... Transferred to surplus fund. Medical and hospital department, 1885: By Signal Service Bureau, for supplies furnished... Total to be accounted for Disbursed during the year: For medical and hospital supplies. For expenses of purveying depots.. For pay of employés For miscellaneous expenses For medical attendance, medicines, &c Balance to be accounted for July 1, 1886. $78,317 25 250 00 1,688 40 269 04 81,850 07 13, 275 07 In United States Treasury $9,852 13 In hands of disbursing officers... 3,422 94 13, 275 07 The balance remaining on hand at the close of the fiscal year has already been, or will be, expended in the payment for supplies contracted for and other obligations incurred prior to July 1, 1886. Signal Service, Medical Department, 1884: Medical attendance and medicines... $739 00 Medical attendance and medicines to officers doing duty in con- 100 00 Medical and hospital supplies at Fort Myer, Va.. 35 16 Medicines to officers and enlisted men from purveying depots and 99 54 Total to be accounted for...... 973 70 Balance on hand July 1, 1885: Medical attendance and medicines Disbursed during the year: For medical attendance and medicines.. Signal Service, Medical Department, 1885: Medical attendance and medicines for officers doing duty in con- $16 25 957 45 973 70 3,776 14 97 15 Medical and hospital supplies at Fort Myer, Va.. 415 64 Material for repair of hospital at Fort Myer, Va.... 74 83 Medicines to officers and enlisted men from purveying depots and For medical attendance and medicines for officers doing duty in 100 00 For medical and hospital supplies at Fort Myer, Va 700 00 For work and supplies at Fort Myer, Va..... 300 00 For medical and hospital supplies to officers and enlisted men of Expended in furnishing trusses under sections 1176, 1177, 1178, Revised Statutes 3,968 12 I would respectfully observe that in carrying out the laws for furnishing trusses some cases are observed in which there is apparent hardship, if not injustice; for instance, a soldier ruptured during the war with Mexico, although he may be receiving a pension on account of hernia, is not entitled to receive a truss. Under the law as it now stands (Secs. 1176, 1177, and 1178, Revised Statutes, and Supplement, p. 450), the following classes of persons are not entitled to trusses: Those who were ruptured at any time while serving as commissioned officers of whatever grade; those who were ruptured prior to April 19, 1861, whether commissioned or enlisted, although the disability may have been incurred in the line of duty and during the prevalence of war; and those who have been ruptured since August 20, 1866, whether commis. sioned or enlisted, unless the disability may have been incurred in the line of duty during the war. It is recommended that existing law on this subject be so amended as to correspond with that relating to artificial limbs; that is, to allow a truss, suitable to the disability, to every person who has been, or may hereafter be, ruptured in the line of duty while serving in the Army or Navy. It may be proper to add that the only evidence of rupture in the line of duty accepted by this office is that furnished by the Pension Office, that the applicant is in receipt of a pension (either wholly or in part) on account of hernia. MEDICAL AND HOSPITAL SUPPLIES. The money value of the medical and hospital supplies, actually issued during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, was $168,119.06, and the cost of the supplies required for issue during the current year will prob ably exceed that amount. I base the estimate of the probable cost of the medical and hospital supplies which will be required for issue dur ing present fiscal year on the fact that the average money value of the medical supplies issued annually during the fiscal years July 1, 1876, to June 30, 1886, was approximately $183,000, exclusive of all other expenses. In this connection I respectfully invite your attention to my estimate of appropriations required by the Medical Department of the Army for the service of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888, submitted to you on the 16th instant, as follows: For the purchase of medicines and hospital supplies, expenses of medical purveying depots, pay of employés, medical care and treatment of officers and enlisted men of the Army on duty at posts and stations for which no other provision is made; for the proper care and treatment of cases in the Army suffering from contagious epidemic diseases; advertising and other miscellaneous expenses of the Medical Department (the amount to be expended for pay of employés not to exceed $46,000), $225,000; for the purchase of disinfectants for general post sanitation, $10,000; for medical and hospital supplies for the Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs, Ark., $4,000; for the service of the Army and Navy General Hospital, Hot Springs, Ark., including clerk, stewards, cooks, attendants, engineer, laundresses, laborers, watchmen, and other necessary employés, $14,620; total, $253,620. The estimated amounts will, it is believed, be necessary to meet the wants of the Medical Department for the ensuing fiscal year. It becomes necessary, from time to time, to add to the standard supply table new remedies, new instruments, and new standard medical books, and to provide them for use by the medical officers of the Army in the proper diagnosis and treatment of disease. By direction of the Secretary of War, disinfectants for general use in the Army are estimated for by the Medical Department (heretofore supplied by the Quartermaster's Department). The limited number of contract surgeons allowed by law necessitates the temporary employment of private physicians, under existing regulations, to furnish medical attendance to officers and enlisted men at stations where there is no medical officer of the Army. These physicians are paid by the visit from the medical and hospital appropriation. Added to this is the necessary expenditure for the employment of skilled nurses for the proper care and treatment of epidemic contagious diseases. I respectfully recommend, as specified in estimate submitted, that the limit of amount of the appropriation to be expended for pay of employés of the Medical Department be increased to $46,000. The largely increased amount of clerical labor required for the preparation of contracts and other papers pertaining to same renders necessary an increase of the clerical force at medical purveying depots. I respectfully recommend, in order to facilitate the purchase and delivery of medical and hospital supplies, and for the best interest of the service with a view to economy, that Congress be requested to grant authority, in the purchase of medical and hospital supplies which cost less than $500, to make such purchases after due advertisement for bids, without entering into a formal written contract. In many instances a strict compliance with the letter of the law and existing regulations, in preparing the formal executory contracts, five copies of which are required, entails an expense to the Government in clerical time and labor fully equal to the cost of the article for which the contract is made. It is not believed that such was the intention of the framers of the laws relating to purchases of Government supplies. HEALTH OF THE ARMY. The medical, surgical, and meteorological statistics of the Army for the calendar year ending December 31, 1885, are respectfully submitted. The following table shows in brief the more important facts that are to be presented: + General statistics of the health of the Army for the year. White. Colored. Total. Average mean strength, as shown on the medical reports, during the year* Number of admissions to sick report during the year. 24, 138 32,990 Treated in hospital Treated in quarters or field Ratio of admissions to 1,000 of mean strength... Ratio for the previons year.. Admitted for disease.. Ratio per 1,000 of strength. 1,509 Ratio for the preceding decade. Admitted for injuries.. Ratio per 1,000 of strength... Average number constantly sick during the year Ratio per 1,000 of strength.. Ratio for the previous year. Ratio for the preceding decade. Average days of service lost by sickness to each man of the above force during the year.. Average days of service lost by sickness to each man of the force dur ing the previous year 16 18 16.2 Average days of service lost by sickness to each man of the force dur The average mean strength of command is based upon the number of troops actually present on each day of the year, with such commands as are provided with medical officers, troops present sich and military prisoners, except such as are discharged from service, being included. Indian scouts (two hundred and fifty-two) are not included in this table. This number includes all cases of disease or injury on account of which officers and enlisted men aro excused from any part of their military duty. The death and discharge rates here given are higher than they should be, as they are computed upon the strength of such troops as are provided with medical officers, and not upon the strength of the entire Army, which the report of the General of the Army, under date of June 30, 1885, shows ta have been (deducting Indian scouts) 26,542. The true death rate for the year, therefore, was 6.9 per 1,000, and the discharge rate 29 per 1,000 of strength, while the annual rates for the preceding decade were 11.7 deaths per 1,000 of strength and 31 discharges per 1,000 of strength. |