at recreations, what everything, I
may say. Now the Sanitary Commission has made searching inquiries
touching every point of camp and soldier life,--gathering in facts from
all quarters, and seeking to attain to some fixed sanitary principles.
It has sent the most eminent medical men on tours of inspection to all
our camps, who have put questions and given hints to the very men to
whom they were of the most direct importance. As a result, we have a
mass of facts, which, in the breadth of the field which they cover, in
the number of vital questions which they settle, and in the fulness and
accuracy of the testimony by which they are sustained, are worth more
than all the sanitary statistics of all other nations put together.

And we are to consider that these inquiries were from the beginning
turned to practical use. If you look over your pile of dusty pamphlets,
very likely you will find a little Sanitary tract entitled, "Rules for
Preserving the Health of the Soldier." This was issued almost before the
war had seriously begun. Or you will come across paper containing the
last results of the last foreign investigations. So early was the good
seed of sanitary knowledge sown. We must remember, too, how many
mooted, yet vital questions have now been put to rest. Take an
example,--Quinine. Everybody had a general notion that quinine was as
valuable as a preventive of disease as a cure. But how definite was our
knowledge? How many knew when and in what positions and to what extent
it was valuable? As early as 1861 the Commission prepared and published
what has been justly termed an exhaustive monograph on the whole
subject, collecting into a brief space all the best testimony bearing
upon the question. This was the beginning of an investigation which,
pursued through a vast number of cases, has demonstrated, that, in
peculiar localities and under certain circumstances, quinine in full
doses is an almost absolute necessity. And in such localities, and under
such circumstances, Government issues now a daily ration to every
man, saving who can tell how many valuable lives? One more
illustration,--Camps. Suppose you were to lead a thousand men into the
Southern country. Would you know where to encamp them? whether with a
southern or a northern exposure? on a breezy hill, or in a sheltered
valley? beneath the shade of groves, or out in the broad sunshine? Could
you tell what kind of soil was healthiest, or how near to each other y