We have a letter before us from an Intelligent, educated citizen of this State, a non-commissioned officer in one of our late Maine Regiments, from which we make the following extracts:
“We have been put through a pretty hard breaking-in process. Our march through Maryland was a fatiguing one, and the exposure (sleeping in the open air) was a rough ordeal to those of hitherto sedentary life especially. I stood it better than I expected, carrying my musket every day that the regiment moved, though many stout men gave out, who, I thought, could stand much more than I.”
The writer was afflicted with the prevailing army diseases,—diarrhoea, dysentery, and bloody flux,—and was obliged to report him self on the sick list. He was on the doctor’s hands about a week, and says of his treatment—
“His treatment was salts one day and opium the next. I found this did me but little if any good, and reported myself for duty, which was the only way I could get rid of going to him (the doctor.) I then commenced taking, in moderate doses, a tea made of white oak leaves—used it two or three days and found mv bowels apparently nearly well, the tenderness and soreness nearly gone, as well as all appearance of dysentery. I think I shall be all right in a day or two; am now a little weak, but have a strong appetite, and hearty food “sets well” on my stomach.”
“Our medical arrangements are not the best. I don’t think the Surgeons know any too much, and they certainly do not exhibit any excess of feeling for the sick, of whom there are not far from 300 present, and quite a number absent. Diarrhoea, dysentery, symptoms of “shakes,” rheumatism, and an occasional case of typhoid fever, make up the most of the cases.”
This letter was placed in our hands by an old Medical practitioner, a graduate of the Bowdoin Medical School, and a member of the regular faculty. He gave it as his opinion that such treatment as the writer received for his diseases—” salts one day and opium the next”—would have used him up in another week, unless he was blessed with an uncommonly strong constitution; and he further said it was astonishing that physicians should be placed in the position of army surgeons, who had never gained any reputation at home, and who could gain none, and who didn’t know that, in diseases of the bowels such as the soidiers are exposed to, the true remedy is simple astringents, and not drastic purgatives. At his suggestion we have copied the extracts above, and we hope that hereafter, in the appointment of surgeons, particular regard will be had to the fitness of the candidates, so that our soldiers shall have the benefit of the best knowledge and the best, skill, for even then their deprivations will be as great as they should be called upon to suffer. It is time in all appointments, from an Assistant Surgeon to a Major General, that favoritism should be ignored, and fitness, capacity, energy and honesty be more consulted.
The Portland Daily Press, Portland, ME