Medical recollections of the Army of the Potomac / by Jonathan Letterman.

  • Letterman, Jonathan, 1824-1872.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical recollections of the Army of the Potomac / by Jonathan Letterman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tliQ instructions contained in my circular of October # 30, 1862, as far as they were applicable to such cases, for taking care of such sick as could not be properly treated in regimental hospitals, and enabling Medical officers to become familiar with the manner in which such hospitals should be conducted. Hone were formed, however, in the Third Division of the Sixth Corps, under Surgeon Holman, the sick being amply provided for in the regimental hospitals. In the middle of January, the sickness in this Army, which then numbered nearly two hundred thousand men, was a little over eight per cent. When we consider the season of the year, the number of raw troops just added to the Army (fifty-six regiments), and the utterly inadequate protection afforded by the shelter tent, this percentage was not excessive. Leaving out the new regiments, the ratio was about five per cent. Venereal disease prevailed to a great degree among the newly arrived troops, among whom were also found numerous cases of hernia. On the 9th of January I directed the establishment of an hospital in Washington, exclusively for the treatment of these diseases. I wished more care bestowed upon such cases, and hoped the result of the treatment would be valuable to science, and more easily obtained than from the scattered records of the various hospitals throughout the country. The movement of the