Medical Board — health regulations.
The Richmond Enquirer justly remarks that the sick rolls of regiment and companies ought to be closely looked into, to see what commanders and what surgeons watch over the health of their men, providing them with such comforts, imposing upon them such restrictions, and requiring of them such observances as will promote their vigor and secure their good health. Why is it, asks the Enquirer, that some regiments have been almost rendered useless by sickness, while others similarly situated and with similar troops, have suffered but little? Soldiers left to themselves will be negligent and imprudent; and if their interests are not looked after by their commanders, they will suffer from exposure and privation. He who most excels in attention to these duties, whether medical officer or commander, is even worthier of promotion than he who distinguishes himself for gallantry and capacity in actual battle, but neglects his duties at other times, and so sends his men into the hospital and keeps them there. A comparison of the reports of the physical condition of the various divisions and subdivisions of the army, would, by involving necessary explanations, enable our authorities to determine what officers merit applause and who deserve censure. We trust such inquiries and comparisons will be diligently and rigidly made, and that those who may be found to deserve commendation will be suitably honored, while the negligent shall be censured, and warned or dismissed.The Enquirer has been shown a letter written on the authority of a physician of Virginia, complaining in the most earnest and emphatic manner of the Medical Department at Manassas. The Doctor says, "the filth is revolting," and censures in the strongest terms the medical administration, both as respects sanitary regulations and the attention to sick soldiers at that point. The Enquirer says it has heard much through other sources to confirm these representations, and, if half of them be true, a searching inquest and summary remedy should at once be had by the supreme authorities.
