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to 74 in two weeks. The surgeon of the Sixty-second Pennsylvania reported equally favorably, and stated that two companies of the regiment who had used it faithfully for two weeks presented a sick report of only four men. Much prejudice and aversion, however, had to be overcome in inducing the men to take it, and I scarcely think it would have been practicable to have forced it upon the whole army. Fortunately there was no necessity for this.

In order to secure some comforts for the sick in the regimental hospitals I attempted to show the surgeons how to create and to use a hospital fund. The regimental commissaries strenuously opposed this, on account of the inconvenience to themselves. The first paragraph of General Orders, Numbers 9, Army of the Potomac, September 9, 1861, however, enjoined this upon them as a duty, and in the course of some four or five months we succeeded in getting the system pretty generally established.

As cold weather came on I judged it necessary to make some provision for warming the tents. A very ingenious plan having been proposed by Brigade Surgeon McRuer, which had received the approval of General Heintzelman and other officers of experience, I directed Dr. McRuer to visit every division of the army, and to construct one of his furnaces for a model. This duty he performed. Some of course were found to object to it, but it was generally well received and found to contribute much to the comfort of the men. Some, however, still used the Crimean pit, and others succeeded in getting stoves. A cheap and convenient stove, and one readily transported, the make of Mr. Hainsworth, of Newport, Ky., was introduced into the army and found to answer well. It was the general understanding that the army was not to go into winter quarters, and therefore I did not recommend the housing of the men until the middle of January, 1862; but in December, 1861, learning that some of the regiments were excavating pits in the ground and covering them with their tents, I hastened to object strenuously to this plan. I suggested inclosures of rails or palisades some three feet high, to be roofed over with the tents. The excavation could not be kept dry or well ventilated, and certainly would not be kept in good police; all of which objections would be obviated by the above-ground inclosure. This plan was adopted in a number of camps I visited, and they presented an air of comfort that was very gratifying. Later in the season I recommended the Chester hut, with roof ventilation, as used so successfully at Balaklava.

Protection of the men against the contagion of small-pox of course received constant attention. While the Army of the Potomac was in process of organization small-pox was prevailing rather extensively in several of the districts from which the troops were being drawn. It was unsafe to travel without protection over any railway in the country. The city of Washington was infected, as I knew from the number of applications made to me by the authorities for the use of our small-pox ambulances to convey city patients to the pest-house. An eruptive-fever hospital had been established before I took charge of the army. Under the excellent arrangements made in that establishment by Dr. Thomas, the surgeon in charge, but little risk was incurred of the propagation of the disease to the camps. Orders were issued and reiterated for the vaccination of all volunteers unprotected. I also recommended that an order should be published requiring that all recruits for the Army of the Potomac should be vaccinated before they were put en route from their rendezvous, and that they should be carefully inspected as to this immediately upon their arrival. Not satisfied with what had been done, I.