expenditures at the House of Refuge, which were made prior to the appointment of the Sanitary Commission, which were not recommended by the medical director or deemed necessary by the surgeon in attendance, that are not included in the above estimates.

We trust that the present method of employing nurses will be continued, as it is not only more economical, but the sick are better cared for and attend to. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining pay for the nurses and attendants employed, we would recommend that an order be issued authorizing the employment of nurses and directing the payment of the same.

There is great difficulty for surgeons of regiments and regimental hospitals to procure the necessary medicines for the proper care of the sick. It is the subject of universal complaint among them. The fault is in the supply-table, which is entirely inadequate to the present extraordinary development of the Army. Pulmonary and bronchial diseases are very prevalent at this season of the year-almost epidemic- and large quantities of expectorants are required, while the supply-table for regiments in the field furnishes scarcely any. We deem it absolutely essential to the health of the soldier that this should be remedied as speedily as possible. Could you witness the sufferings which I to-day witnessed, to-morrow's sun would not go down without an order correcting it.

The Sanitary Commission has already had to supply a number of regiments with proper medicines. Other have had to apply to the Governors of the States from which they came; all of which is manifestly wrong and injurious to the service. An order from yourself to supply the regimental surgeons such articles as the Government furnishes the post and general hospitals, and to be furnished in such quantities as may be necessary, will obviate the difficulty. We trust that an order to this effect will be issed at once, as the necessity is most pressing.

We find on examination that there is great deficiency in the supply of ambulances to regiments in the field. Of the regiments examined three have two ambulances each; eight regiments one each, and fifteen were without ambulances. The necessity for supplying the deficiency is apparent, the allowance being twelve ambulances to each regiment.

On the recommendation of the Sanitary Commission General Fremont ordered that each regiment in this division should be supplied with twelve of Irving's patent cots for the sick. These cots were made with straps and serve the purpose of stretchers. They weight 20 pounds, and will cost $4.50 each or $54 to supply a regiment. Quite a number of regiments were supplied with them, but for some reason unknown to us the order was suspended. We would recommend that the order be renewed.

From a recent examination of the camps and hospitals at Rolla, made by Dr. Douglas, of the United States Sanitary Commission, we find there are at that post 1,542 sick out of an aggregate strength of 14,762. This includes the sick at post and regimental hospitals and in camp.

At the various posts along the line of the main stem of the Pacific Railroad there were found over 1,300 sick in hospitals alone. How many were sick in camp was not ascertained. Language cannot be found too strong to describe the condition of many of the regimental and some of the post hospitals. They were sickening to behold.

We would recommend, as there is now an abundance of room in our general hospitals, that the very sick and those who are likely to con-