me class of professional men as those who pursue useful and honorable
careers in all our cities and villages. When a physician is called upon
at home, it happens in a majority of cases--as every honest member of
the profession will admit--that there is little or no necessity for his
services. Too sagacious to avow this, he gravely makes some simple
prescription, and as gravely pockets his fee. In camp, however, the
potent argument of the fee does not prevail, and men who run to the
doctor with trifling ailments, by which they hope to be relieved from
duty, receive a rebuff instead of a pill. They instantly write letters
complaining of his inhumanity. In regard to operations, it is a frequent
remark by the most experienced surgeons that lives are lost from the
hesitancy to amputate, more frequently than limbs are removed
unnecessarily.

The medical department of an army, like every other, is controlled by a
_system_, and it is this which regulates its connections with the
soldier more than the qualifications of individual surgeons. In the army
the _system_ takes care of everything, even to the minutest details.
Hygienic regulations for preserving the salubrity of camps and the
cleanliness of the troops and their tents, are prescribed and enforced.
Every day there is a 'sick call' at which men who find themselves ill
present themselves to the surgeons for treatment. If slightly affected,
they are taken care of in their own quarters; if more seriously, in the
regimental hospitals; if still more so, in the large hospitals
established by the chief medical officer of the corps; and if necessary,
sent to the Government hospitals established at various places in the
country. To the latter almost all the sick are transferred previous to a
march. To be ill in the army, amid the constant noises of a camp, and
with the non-luxurious appliances of a field hospital, is no very
pleasant matter; but the sick soldier receives all the attention and
accommodation possible under the circumstances.

To every corps is attached a train of ambulances, in the proportion of
two or three to a regiment. They are spring wagons with seats along the
sides, like an omnibus, which can, when necessary, be made to form a bed
for two or three persons. With each train is a number of wagons,
carrying tents, beds, medicine chests, etc., required for the
establishment of hospitals. On the march, the ambulances collect the
sick and exhausted who fall out from