has been warm and dry, with only occasional showers, yet, so far as I have been able to learn, the troops have not suffered much in their marches.

All of the points at which any considerable body of troops remain stationed north of the mountains, or on the tops of the mountains, have, up to this moment, given no evidence of insalubrity. Unfortunately this cannot be said of Stevenson or of Bridgeport, ala., or probably of any point along the immediate banks of the Tennessee River. The bottom lands are in a great measure uncultivated, and although not very wet, they are covered by a luxuriant and tangled undergrowth of vegetation, which fills the valley with malaria. The air of the valley is but little disturbed by the prevailing winds; hot, dry, and sultry days are followed by damp and chilly nights, the night fogs being exceedingly heavy and hanging over the valley and upon the sides of the mountains until some time after the sun has rise. The troops encamped at Stevenson, Bridgeport, and other points which I have visited in the valley, are already beginning to suffer from malarial fevers, both remittent and intermittent, generally of as mild character, but new cases are occurring in such numbers as to occasion some anxiety as to the result, if the army should be required to remain long in this position.

I am informed by Dr. Th. L. Maddin, professor of surgery in the Shelby Medical College, Nashville, and formerly a resident practitioner of Northern Alabama, that later in the season, congestive fevers of a highly pernicious type occur in this valley. I take the liberty of stating also that he recommends the cold-water effusion, or dash, as the most effectual method of arresting the chill, a and, as an internal remedy, he recommends a powder competed as follows: Take quinine, 2 drachm; calomel, 1/2 scruple; opium, 5 grains; cayenne pepper, 12 grains. Divide into six powders. Take one powder every 2 hours, commencing, if possible, 12 hours before the next paroxysm, and to be given without any reference to the fever.

The reputation for sill and scientific attainments which Dr. Maddin enjoys here and elsewhere entitle his opinions to special consideration.

At the request of Dr. Perin, the medical director of the department, of the department, I have made some inquiries in relation to the milk sickness which is said to prevail to a certain extent, in certain seasons, in the Cumberland Mountains.

I am informed by Mr. Green Brazelton, a very intelligent gentleman, residing near Winchester, Tenn., and who has lived in the vicinity of these mountains since 1811, that milk sickness has prevailed in this neighborhood, more or less, ever since the earliest settlement. It occurs especially after a prolonged drought, and generally pretty late in the season, in the coves or narrow gorges, which here and there indent the sides of the mountains, where the soil is black and fertile and the land is not cleared. When the land has been cleared and the soil cultivated a few years, milk sickness disappears. Mr. Brazelton has known it to occur in a cove opposite to and east of Anderson Station, and at the northern base of the mountain near Cowan, and also at many other places on the northern slope, but which places he was not able specifically to name.

He had less acquaintance with the southern slope of the mountains,

a Professor Maddin recommends also the application of cantharides to the abdomen freely, and to the whole length of the spine and to the extremities.