mediator between the contending parties, and submitted to the approbation of the Dominicans certain propositions which, if accepted by them, he would present to the Spanish chief. These propositions were modified several times, and at last the Dominican Government decided upon two single articles, which, if Geffrard had no objection, could at once be presented to the Spanish commander. 1st. A general exchange of prisoners of war and State, including those incarcerated before the revolution by the Spaniards, on account of their politics, without regard to the numbers on either side. 2d. A commission, of two or more individuals, appointed by the two contending parties, would be sent to Madrid to present to the Queen a representation asking the peace, liberty, and independence of the republic.

In the meanwhile there had been a change of Cabinet in Spain, and the new Ministry of Narvaez, seeing the impossibility of continuing any longer the war against San Domingo, proposed to the Cortes a bill repealing the act of 1861, by which that country was annexed to Spain. After a protracted and animated debate the bill was passed and the independence of San Domingo restored. (See SPAIN.)

SANITARY COMMISSIONS. I. THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION. The proclamation of the President of the United States on the 15th of April, 1861, announcing the beginning of a civil war, and calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers, not only brought to light the patriotic feeling of the masses of American citizens, who hastened to enrol themselves among the volunteer defenders of the country, but evoked a deep feeling of sympathy, and a desire to aid in the good work on the part of those who from age, profession, or sex, were debarred the privilege of giving their personal service in the field. Soldiers' aid societies, to furnish lint, bandages, hospital clothing, and delicacies, as well as nurses for the sick and wounded, sprung up on every hand; their zeal was often mingled with inexperience and ignorance, and the Medical Bureau of the War Department, nearly as ignorant as they of the immense duties and responsibilities which would soon overwhelm it, turned a cold shoulder to their offers of aid; but the motives which prompted them in their benevolent offers were worthy of all praise. Among these aid societies, many of them organized within two or three weeks after the President's proclamation, was one, "The Woman's Central Association of Relief," in New York, which had among its officers some gentlemen of large experience in sanitary science, and of considerable knowledge of military hygiene. These sought to give to its labors a practical character from the beginning, and they urged upon the association the importance of ascertaining at once what the Government would and could do, and then making arrangements to cooperate with it and supplement its deficiencies. Prominent among these gentlemen was Rev. Henry W. Bellows,

D.D., who had previously won a high reputa tion by his efforts for improving the sanitary condition of our large cities.

Other organizations of gentlemen were attempting by different, yet in the main_similar measures, to render assistance to the Government. Among these were the "Advisory Committee of the Board of Physicians and Surgeons of the Hospitals of New York," and "The New York Medical Association for furnishing Hospital Supplies in aid of the Army," both new associations, called into existence by the exigencies of the war. Fraternizing with each other, as they well might, since they all looked to the accomplishment of the same end, these associations resolved to send a joint delegation to Washington to confer with the Government, and ascertain by what means they might best cooperate with it for the benefit of the soldiers of the nation.

The idea of organizing a Commission which should unite and energize all these as yet isolated societies, and apply their contributions to the best advantage in aid of the Medical Bureau and the sick and wounded soldiers, seems to have been suggested to the delegation at the very outset of their mission.

On the 18th of May, 1861, Messrs. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., W. H. Van Buren, M.D., Elisha Harris, M.D., and Jacob Harsen, M.D., representatives of these three associations, drew up and forwarded to the Secretary of War a communication setting forth the propriety of creating an organization which should unite the duties and labors of the three associations, and cooperate with the Medical Bureau of the War Department to such an extent that each might aid the other in securing the welfare of the army. For this purpose they asked that a mixed Commission of civilians, military officers, and medical men, might be appointed by the Government, charged with the duty of methodizing and reducing to practical service the already active but undirected benevolence of the people toward the army, who should consider the general subject of the prevention of sickness and suffering among the troops, and suggest the wisest method which the people at large could use to manifest their good-will toward the comfort, security, and health of the army. They referred to the Commissions which followed the Crimean and Indian wars, and brought to light the vast amount of suffering which had been needlessly endured there, and begged that, in this case, the organization might precede the war, and prevent so far as possible the suffering which would otherwise ensue. They suggested, also, the appointment of cooks and nurses for the army, and stated that the "Woman's Central Association of Relief" stood ready to undertake the training of both in their duties.

On the 22d of May, R. C. Wood, M.D., then Acting Surgeon-General, now in charge of the Western Medical Department, followed this communication by a letter addressed to the

Secretary of War, urging the establishment of the desired Commission as a needed adjunct to the new, extensive, and overflowing duties of the Medical Bureau.

On the 23d of May the delegation addressed to the Secretary of War a "Draft of powers, asked from the Government, by the Sanitary delegates to the President and Secretary of War." In this paper the powers desired were stated as follows:

"1. The Commission being organized for the purposes only of inquiry and advice, asks for no legal powers, but only the official recognition and moral countenance of the Government, which will be secured by its public appoint ment. It asks for a recommendatory order, addressed in its favor to all officers of the move ment, to further its inquiries; for permission to correspond and confer, on a confidential footing, with the Medical Bureau and the War Department, proffering such suggestions and counsel as its investigations and studies may from time to time prompt and enable it to offer.

"2. The Commission seeks no pecuniary remuneration from the Government. Its motives being humane and patriotic, its labors will be its own reward. The assignment to them of a room in one of the public buildings, with stationery and other necessary conveniences, would meet their expectations in this direction.

"3. The Commission asks leave to sit through the war, either in Washington, or when and where it may find it most convenient and useful; but it will disband should experience render its operations embarrassing to the Government, or less necessary and useful than it is now supposed they will prove."

Concerning the objects of the Commission, the delegation say:

"The general object of the Commission is through suggestions reported from time to time to the Medical Bureau and the War Department, to bring to bear upon the health, comfort, and morale of our troops, the fullest and ripest teachings of sanitary science, in its application to military life, whether deduced from theory or practical observations, from general hygienic principles, or from the experience of the Crimean, the East India, and the Italian wars. Its objects are purely advisory."

They indicate the following specific objects of inquiry:

"1. Materiel of the Volunteers. The Commission proposes a practical inquiry into the materiel of the volunteer forces, with reference to the laws and usages of the several States, in the matter of inspections, with the hope of assimilating the regulations with those of the army proper, alike in the appointment of medical and other officers, and in the vigorous application of just rules and principles to recruiting and inspection laws. This inquiry would exhaust every topic appertaining to the original

materiel of the army, considered as a subject of sanitary and medical care.

"2. Prevention. The Commission would inquire with scientific thoroughness into the subject of diet, cooking, cooks, clothing, huts, camping grounds, transports, transitory depots, with their expenses, camp police, with reference to settling the question how far the regulations of the army proper are or can be practically carried out among the volunteer regiments, and what changes or modifications are desirable from their peculiar character and circumstances? Every thing appertaining to outfit, cleanliness, precautions against damp, cold, heat, malaria, infection, and unvaried or ill-cooked food, and an irregular or careless commissariat, would fall under this head.

"3. Relief. The Commission would inquire into the organization of Military Hospitals, general and regimental; the precise regulations and routine through which the services of the patriotic women of the country may be made available as nurses; the nature and sufficiency of hospital supplies; the method of obtaining and regulating all other extra and unbought supplies, contributing to the comfort of the sick; the question of ambulances and field services, and of extra medical aid; and whatever else relates to the care, relief, or cure of the sick and wounded, their investigations being guided by the highest and latest medical and military experience, and carefully adapted to the nature and wants of our immediate army, and its peculiar origin and circumstances."

The President and Secretary of War were not at first disposed to look with any great favor upon this plan, which they regarded rather as a sentimental scheme concocted by women, clergymen, and humane physicians, than as one whose practical workings would prove of incalculable benefit to the army which was rapidly coming into existence. The earnestness of its advocates, their high position, and the evidence which was adduced that they only represented the voice of the nation, produced some effect in modifying their views; and when the Acting Surgeon-General asked for it, as a needed adjuvant to the Medical Bureau, likely soon to be overwhelmed by its new duties, they finally decided, though reluctantly, to permit its organization.

The

Accordingly the Secretary of War, on the 9th of June, decided on the creation of such a Commission, the President approving. title first given to the new organization was "The Commission of Inquiry and Advice in respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United States Forces," but was subsequently changed to "The United States Sanitary Commission."

It was composed of the following gentlemen: Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., President, New York; Professor A. D. Bache, VicePresident, Washington; Elisha Harris, M.D., Corresponding Secretary, New York; George W. Cullum, U. S. A., Washington; Alexander E. Shiras, U. S. A., Washington; Robert C.

Wood, M.D., U. S. A., Washington; William H. Van Buren, M.D., New York; Wolcott Gibbs, M.D., New York; Cornelius R. Agnew, M.D., New York; George T. Strong, New York; Frederick Law Olmsted, New York; Samuel G. Howe, M.D., Boston; J. S. New berry, M.D., Cleveland, Ohio. To these were subsequently added Horace Binney, Jr., Philadelphia; Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D.D., Providence, R. I.; Hon. Joseph Holt, Kentucky; R. W. Burnett, Cincinnati, Ohio; Hon. Mark Skinner, Chicago, Illinois; Rev. John H. Heywood, Louisville, Kentucky; Professor Fairman Rogers, Philadelphia; J. Huntington Wolcott, Boston; Charles J. Stillé, Philadelphia; Ezra B. McCagg, Chicago, Ill.; and nearly six hundred associate members, in all parts of the country. (See ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, 1861, p. 36.)

It is a matter of wonder that in a field so wholly new the delegation should have so fully comprehended the duties which would be incumbent upon the Commission, and the range of its future operations. There were indeed certain features of its work which, of necessity, could only be developed by the bitter experiences through which it was called to pass; and in the end, the great lack in the Government Medical Service, compelled it to assume more of the executive and less of the advisory functions. Still it has never failed to bear in mind that it was created to aid by its advice, counsel, and, where needed, its direct help, the medical department of the Government service, and has ever been ready to withdraw from every duty which that department, under its constantly increasing efficiency, could successfully perform.

Under its charter, it at once proceeded to organize its action and to appoint committees from its members to visit every camp, recruitingpost, transport, fort, hospital, and military station, to ascertain and report all abuses, and to perfect such organization as might insure a higher degree of health and comfort for the soldiers.

The medical members of the Commission undertook to consider the questions which might arise concerning the diseases of the camp, and their medical and surgical treatment, from the highest scientific point of view; and guided by the rich and abundant experience of European army surgeons, to prepare brief medical and surgical tracts adapted to the wants of the volunteer surgeons of the army. Among these tracts, of which many thousands have been circulated, were "Advice as to Camping;' "Report on Military Hygiene and Therapeutics; " Dr. Guthrie's Directions to Army Surgeons on the Battle-field;" ;""Rules for preserving the Health of the Soldier;" "Quinine as a Prophylactic against Malarious Diseases;" "Report on the value of Vaccination in Armies;" "Report on Amputation;" "Report on Amputation through the Foot and at the Ankle-joint;" "Report on Venereal Diseases; ""Report on Pneu

""Re

monia; ""Report on Continued Fevers;" " port on Excision of Joints for Traumatic Cause;" "Report on Dysentery; ""Report on Scurvy;" "Report on the Treatment of Fractures in Military Surgery;" "Report on the Nature and Treatment of Miasmatic Fevers;" "Report on the Treatment of Yellow Fever;" "Report on the Treatment of Infectious Diseases," etc. Three committees were appointed, one to communicate the matured counsels of the Commission to the Government, and procure their ordering by the proper departments; a second to maintain a direct relation with the army officers and medical men, with the camps and hospitals, and by all proper methods to make sure of the carrying out of the sanitary orders of the Medical Bureau and the War Department; and a third to be in constant communication with the State Governments, and the public benevolent associations interested in the army.

This plan of organization was approved by the Secretary of War, on the 13th June, 1861, and on the 21st of that month the Commission issued its first address to the public. This was soon followed by an appeal to the Life Insurance Companies, and another to men of wealth throughout the country for aid in the prosecution of its work. The members of the Commission, as such, received no compensation, but the purposes of the organization would require a very considerable number of paid employés, and would involve heavy expenses for publications and supplies, which could only be purchased with money. A considerable number of associate members were elected at this time, who gave their services in raising means for the operations of the Commission, and Ladies' Associations, in all parts of the country, prepared clothing and supplies of all sorts, and forwarded them to its depots.

The members of the Commission visited, during the summer of 1861, the different camps of the widely-extended armies of the republic. and carefully inspected and reported upon their sanitary condition and needs.

The necessity of the services of the agents of the Commission on the field immediately after, or, when practicable, during the progress of, important battles, was felt, as soon as such battles occurred. At first, owing to the difficulties of procuring transportation for its supplies to the field, in consequence of the dependence of the Medical Bureau upon the Quartermaster's Bureau for transportation, it could not reach the field so early as its officers desired, and in some of the earlier battles there was great suffering (partially ameliorated, it is true, by individual effort and enterprise) in consequence. But the Commission soon found it necessary to have its own independent transportation, and this both by land and water; its hospital transports, its wagons and ambulances, and its ambulance railroad cars. In July, 1863, it added to these the plan of attaching to each army corps a Superintendent of Relief, with his assistants, wagons, ambulances, and supplies, to

remain constantly with his corps and minister to its needs.

It has, throughout, worked in harmony with the United States Government, and especially with the Medical Bureau, to which it has proved of great service. That bureau, which at the commencement of the war was utterly inadequate, though from no fault of its own, to the vast work before it, is now well regulated and admirably organized, having a corps of three thousand skilful and responsible surgeons, and fifteen thousand hired nurses experienced in their duties.

But even with this large force, trained as it has been by the arduous duties to which it has been called, there are, and must be, numerous instances where the most perfect working of the Government machinery cannot remedy suffering and misery which a more flexible system can relieve. The presence of incipient scurvy among the troops on Morris Island, and the forces engaged in the siege of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, was detected and remedied by the sending at once of large amounts of fresh vegetables and anti-scorbutics by the Commission to those points, which reached them promptly, and arrested the disease, while, by the necessarily slow movements of the Government, many weeks must have elapsed ere the needed remedies could have been furnished, and meantime half the forces engaged would have perished. "Potatoes and onions," says one of the energetic lady agents of the Commission in Chicago, "captured Vicksburg." "The supplies of fresh vegetables and anti-scorbutics sent by the Sanitary Commission to Morris Island, saved the army of the South," is the testimony of an impartial but thoroughly competent witness, who spent ten months in the hospitals of that department in 1863.

The work of the Sanitary Commission now comprehends the following distinct departments of labor: 1st. The preventive service or Sanitary Inspection, which requires a corps of Medical Inspectors, whose time is passed with each army corps in the field, visiting camps, hospitals, and transports; skilful and experienced physicians, who watch the perils from climate, malarious exposure, from hard marching or active campaigning, from inadequate food or clothing, growing out of imperfect facilities of transportation, and report to the Chief Inspector of that army, and through him to the Chief of Inspection at headquarters, for remedy, or to the Associate Secretary in charge, or to relief agents under their control, and thus see to the supplying of the needs of that portion of the army, and the adoption of the necessary measures for the improvement of its sanitary condition. From the reports of these inspectors the materials are gathered which are digested into such forms as to be of permanent value in the Commission's Bureau of Statistics. To this department belongs also the corps of Special Hospital Inspectors, selected from the most learned and skilful physicians of the country, who,

from time to time, make the circuit of all the general hospitals of the army (now numbering nearly three hundred), and report upon their wants, condition, progress, personnel, and capacity for improvement. The substance of these reports is confidentially made over to the Surgeon-General. A third agency, in connection with this preventive service, is the preparation and circulation of the medical tracts already named, and information important and indispensable to the officers, soldiers, and especially the medical men in the field.

2. The Department of General Relief.-The supplies of food, clothing, bandages, hospital furniture, clothing, and bedding, delicacies for the sick, stimulants and cordials for the wounded on the field, the sick and wounded in camp, field, regimental, post, and general hospitals, come from the branches of the Commission, of which there are twelve, having depots in Boston, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Detroit, Columbus, and Louisville. Each of these branches, which are variously denominated as Ladies' Aid Societies, Relief Associ ations, etc., has its distinctly defined field, from which it draws its supplies, and has from one hundred and fifty to twelve hundred auxiliary aid societies, in the towns, hamlets, and villages, and, in the cities, in the different churches, of its field. The stores collected by the branch are received at its depot, opened, assorted, each kind by itself, repacked, and reports of the number and amount of the supplies thus accumulated are sent every week to the principal office of the Commission, or to the Associate Secretary of the Eastern or Western Department, as the case may be, and shipped, according to orders received, to the depots of distribution, Washington, D. C., Camp Distribution, Va., Baltimore, Md., Harper's Ferry, Va., Annapolis, Md., Camp Parole, Md., Norfolk, Va., City Point, Va., Newbern, N. C., Beaufort, S. C., New Orleans, La., or to the army where they are needed, with the utmost promptness. One of these branches (the "Woman's Central Association of Relief") reported, among the stores forwarded from its depot, from May 1, 1861, to November 1, 1864, 599,780 pieces of clothing, 89,898 pieces of bedding, and over 90,000 packages of fruit, vegetables, jellies, wine, condensed milk, beef-stock, groceries, pickles, lemonade, etc., of a total value of over a million of dollars. The "Northwestern Sanitary Commission," the branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission at Chicago, had sent to the depots of distribution from its organization to December 31, 1864, supplies to the value of $230,645.02, and had expended besides for the purposes of the Commission, about $57,000 more. The supplies thus furnished are distributed with great care to avoid waste, and to supplement the food, clothing, and medicines which the Government is bound to furnishthe object being to do what the Government cannot, and to avoid duplicating its supplies of

what it can and should furnish. Care is exercised also to avoid imposition, while no sufferer in need is allowed to suffer when the Commission can supply his wants. The Commission is national in its character, and supplies the soldiers of one State as readily as those of another. Nay, more-the rebel wounded, when left on the field, or in temporary hospitals within the Union lines, or when sent to camps and hospitals as prisoners, have uniformly received its bounty and its assiduous care. It has had in this matter, at times, to contend, both among the people and on the field, with that exclusive feeling which would limit its beneficence to the soldiers of a single State or regiment; but oftenest the agents of these local organizations have, from the feeling which such exclusiveness has caused among the soldiers, turned their stores into the depots of the Commission, and themselves aided in their distribution to the soldiers, without distinction of locality. The Field Relief Superintendents, already mentioned, who accompany each army corps, belong to this department of general relief.

3. The Department of Special Relief.-This department is under the general superintendence of Rev. F. N. Knapp, Associate Secretary of the Commission for the East, at Washington, and of Dr. J. S. Newberry, Associate Secretary for the West, at Louisville. It furnishes "Homes" to soldiers, where shelter, food, and medical care and general superintendence are furnished for those soldiers who are not yet under the care of the Government, or have just got out of their care, or have somehow lost their status and cannot immediately regain it -recruits, or men on leave, sick leave or furlough, going to and fro; men without skill to care for themselves, ignorant, underwitted, or vicious; men discharged prematurely from the hospitals; men found in the streets, or left behind by their regiments. Of these classes about seven thousand five hundred are accommodated daily or nightly in the homes of the Commission at Alexandria, Harrisburg, Baltimore, Washington, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cairo, Paducah, Camp Nelson, Louisville, New Albany, Nashville, Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans.

There are also belonging to this department six lodges-homes on a smaller scale-where the wearied soldier, sick or feeble, may await his opportunity of obtaining his pay from the Paymaster-General; or landing sick from a steamer or cars, and unable to reach the hospital to which he may belong, can find rest, food, and medical care, till he can be transferred to the hospital, or is able to rejoin his reginent. There are also at Annapolis, Md., and at Washington, D. C., "Homes for the Wives, Mothers, and Children of Soldiers," fitted up and supplied by the Commission, where these friends of the sick and wounded soldier, coming with scanty means to minister to his necessities, can find comfortable food and shelter. Besides these, "feeding stations" for the supply of the VOL. IV.-47 A

sick, wounded, and famished soldier, passing to and from the field, have been established, usually temporarily, but sometimes permanently, on the route from Louisville to Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, &c., and in the Shenandoah Valley, at City Point, and elsewhere. The hospital cars, of which there are several, between Washington, New York, and Boston, and between Louisville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, fitted up with hammocks, in rubber slings, and with a small kitchen for preparing the necessary food for the sick and wounded, and under the charge of a skilful surgeon, belong to this department; as do also the Sanitary steamers, the Clara Bell, on the Mississippi, the New Dunleith, on the Cumberland, and the Elizabeth, on the Potomac. These are used both for the transmission of necessary supplies, and the transportation of the wounded. In this department, also, the commission have established agencies at Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Louisville, and New Orleans, for obtaining for the soldiers and their families, pensions, bounties, back pay, transportation, aid in correcting the soldiers' papers, where there are errors in form, or recovering them their positions when they have wrongfully been set down as deserters, and saving them from sharpers. The Commission have also established Hospital Directories at Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Louisville. In these four directories are registered the names of all soldiers in the United States general hospitals, and as far as possible the regimental and post hospitals throughout the country, and these are constantly receiving additions from the reports sent regularly from such hospitals. By applying to these Directories, information is furnished to friends without cost, other than that of postage or telegram, of the location and condition of any soldier who is or has been within a year an inmate of any United States military hospital. At the Washington office of the Commission, the names of patients in the hospitals in Eastern Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, are recorded; at Philadelphia, those in Pennsylvania hospitals; at New York, those in New York, New Jersey, and New England; at Louisville, those in Western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The officers in charge require the name, rank, company, and regiment of the person inquired for, and where he was when last heard from. About 900,000 names have been thus recorded, and the information afforded by these directories to the friends of the sick and wounded has been of incalculable value, often leading to the preserva tion of life, and to the relief of that most terrible mental anguish, the torture of a dread uncertainty.

Still another measure of special relief, on which the Commission has expended more than $30,000, is the sending of supplies, so long as it was permitted, to our soldiers who were pris