confinement of females, political prisoners, officers of the United States, and suspected who should be kept separate.

Very respectfully,

WM. A. CARRINGTON,

Medical Director.

[Inclosure Numbers 6-b.]

GENERAL HOSPITAL Numbers 21,

Richmond, December 16, 1863.

Surg. W. A. CARRINGTON, Medical Director, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: General Hospital Numbers 23 (Liggon's factory) is now under control of Captain Warner, assistant quartermaster. Captain Selph informs me that the upper story of building corner Twenty-first and Cary streets [is empty] and that the baggage now stored in Numbers 23 could be put in there. Please issue the necessary orders to have Numbers 23 cleaned out, so that I can get possession of the building as soon as possible, as I am much pressed for room. The admissions to hospital this month have averaged about fifty per day.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO WILKINS,

Surgeon in Charge.

[Indorsement.]

MEDICAL DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, December 17, 1863.

Respectfully referred to Captain Warner, assistant quartermaster. The delay in getting possession of the hospital has been productive of great suffering and probably an increase of mortality among the increased prisoners. The stores from the Florida and Texas Hospitals would, I think, be sufficient to fix the hospital at once.

W. A. CARRINGTON,

Medical Director.

[Inclosure Numbers 7.]

Report on the sanitary condition of Belle Isle and the causes of mortality among the patients by Surg. G. W. Semple.

MARCH 6, 1864.

Surg. WILLIAM A. CARRINGTON, Medical Director:

SIR: After inspection of the prison camp on Belle Isle I respectfully submit the following sanitary report:

Into the camp containing an area sufficient for the accommodation of about 3,000 men have been crowded for many months past from 6,000 to 10,000 prisoners. To prevent escapes they have not been allowed to visit the sinks at night. These deposits of excrement have been made in the streets and small vacant spaces between the tents. The streets are so greatly crowded during the day as greatly to interfere with the working police parties, so that nearly the whole day is consumed by them in the imperfect removal of the filthy accumulations of the night. The whole surface of the camp has thus been saturated with putrid animal matter. Surrounded by such circumstances the prisoners have been totally careless of personal cleanliness. The rations now consist entirely of bread, rice, and peas or beans. The bread is made of corn-meal, unsifted or bolted. Not separating the bran from the meal tends greatly to cause and continue the two diseases (diarrhea and dysentery) most prevalent among the prisoners. Many of them are badly clad and destitute of blankets, having sold the articles lately