| Show FEVER IN THE AMERICAN ARMY troops in porto rico may fare like those at santiago fortunately our soldiers did not have a long campaign spaniards respect the red cross an incident cited school houses needed in in porto rico new york aug 22 lieutenant colonel nicholas senn sean who went to cuba ns as chief of the operating staff ot 01 the army has just returned from porto rico and is in the city speaking of his experience he said in cuba oar our army met as its most formidable enemy one of the most dreaded of alt all acute infectious diseases 3 lellow ellow fever the cuban invasion was characterized by hasty action a lack of organization and inadequate preparation on the part of the quartermasters department part ment for medical branch of the army was in no way responsible in less than two weeks after our army landed in cuba yellow fever made its appearance in less than two weeks from that time nearly SW fever cases most of them yellow fever impaired the fighting force and seriously taxed the resources of 0 I 1 be medical department fortunately for the army the be type of the disease was mild and the number of deaths was small in comparison with some epidemics in the past it wan was extremely eil remely fortunate that santiago surrendered AL t the right time oar army would surely have met the fate of the idanish forces who lost over 50 pec cent of their mea men during the last year from sickness in planning pl annin the porto rican invasion inva general miles made the proper arrangements for preventing a repetition ot of this calamity thus far our troops ia in porto rico had bad escaped yellow fever but after la landing fever faver cases carri ginto the different hospitals hospital 2 at an alarming alar minK rate after landine at ponce on august 81 8 1 found at least cases of typhoid fever in tome of the cases it was ditri cult and almost impossible to make a differential diagnosis between malarial and typhoid fever without the old ald of the microscope a resource chica unfortunately tuna tely was not at hand Follo following winz the order of colonel greenleaf leaf chiel abie of the army I 1 investigated for two days all of the fever basea in the hospital for the purpose of locating the origin of typhoid fever A careful study of all the cases showed that 00 90 per cent were genuine typhoid fever cases and that the infection in the army array was brought dir directly estly fro from cathe the camps occupied la the tho united states I 1 am firmly of the opinion that it if the american army now in porto rico remains there much longer the lose 1065 of life due to sickness will be as great as at santiago ibe the order to general wilaba to take up the march towards san juan made it necessary t ti evacuate the division hospital all of the patients were transferred to the spanish military hospital in ponce which caused the temporary overcrowding the club bouses houses of the city and the school for girls in charge of sisters of charity were also offered to the authorities tor for hospital use and wery were accepted I 1 want to make especial mention of it the valuable serviced reu rendered dered by miss alias chandler ot of your city who night and day with untiring energy administered to the sick and wounded eol DOI diere diers alt all of the offie officers ers in the club house became very much attached to miss chandler nostalgia or homesickness in a large mo measure asure has added ad led to the wretched condition of the soldiers not only in cuba but ia in porto rico alsa tha the post office department has shown serious neglect in forwarding mail Youg you give ivea a man maa a letter from home and he feels like fighting I 1 inow as aa actual fact that more than letteri were sent to me mel while I 1 bava hava been away from tram ome but I 1 have received only two of them were in treat great demand and were eagerly bought and read the rhe war hag h again demonstrated tue the great value of the small calibre bullets and has that it Is a moat most humane humans weapon contrary to expects expectations lons but bat fo ir surgical operations ware were necessary and oar our attention ioa was dirac tad entirely to toe the proper dressing drea sinic of wounds 1 I want to correct some of the recoils reports which have come from cuba and porto ric 3 as to the tee feel llaga laza of ol the spaniards dpn bardi against the red carols the spaniard spaniards y never Dir fired at the red crosa cross representatives of oar our country and if any ot of those were in jarad it was entirely due to the fact that the red biages ot of tha th order child not be easily distinguished at a di tanco the following touching incident for example shows that the spaniards are in sympathy with the work of 0 the red cross organization while a company of infantry waa was charging a bill hill at Guan lea a volunteer who had rushed yards ahead ot of the line wag was end denly prostrated by the beat A spanish officer near by ran to him and picked him ut tip and carried him to our line amid the tile ch cheera beere of 0 our troops col senn sean ia is enthusiastic about porto rico and declares island to be worth its in gold 1 it I is a beautiful country a combination of italy and switzerland and its resources are incalculable is now needed in porto rico is american with its little red schoolhouse school house it will take at least fifty years years to baing b ting the native natives ot of porto rico and cuban to such a state of civil that they can govern themselves vei I 1 think the best beet plan for the united states would be to establish a colonial government in the new colonies somewhat upon the plan by which england governs india 1 I am ol 01 the opinion that evenin even in cuba caba military occupation on the part of the U united ni te d S tates will be necess necessity essaiy aty for a long time 11 |
