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endanger life, he may be executed. To pass a counterfeit bill is a 

 crime, but to pass a counterfeit medicine is not. Trade and corre- 

 spondence are more valuable than life, because especial laws are 

 passed for their protection. To state the argument is to refute it. 



Your committee deem the facts set forth in the above communi- 

 cation of sufficient importance to challenge the attention of Con- 

 gress, and to demand the exercise of power asked for by the bill. 

 The reports of every day are filled with death. The gallant troops 

 now in Mexico have dwindled frightfully before the diseases of that 

 climate. That army possesses in its own tried valour an effectual 

 element of protection from the present or any future enemy. It 

 does not ask our protection from the foe; for this it looks to God 

 and its own right arm; but "the arrow that flyeth at noonday, and 

 the pestilence that walketh in darkness," are beyond their vigilance 

 and prowess. Your committee, by frequent conversations with the 

 surgeons in attendance upon our troops there, have been surprised 

 at the herculean portions of active medicines prescribed in many 

 forms of illness. They were at first disposed to trace many of 

 these prescriptions to peculiarity of climate and endemic disease. 

 But the adulteration of the medicines used accounts for and fully 

 justifies these seemingly extravagant prescriptions, and also explains 

 the lamentable mortality attendant upon our troops. We are not 

 aware of the existence of a law requiring inspection of drugs and 

 medicine purchased for the army or navy. We believe no inspec- 

 tion is had in this department; and, whilst a rigid examination of 

 material for clothing and subsistence is demanded, the sick and 

 wounded are left to him who furnishes agents necessary for their 

 comfort and recovery, as the lowest bidder. We deem this a dan- 

 gerous proceeding, and one imperiously demanding legislation.* 



To exemplify the dangers, we quote from the published "ac- 

 cepted contracts" made by the "Bureau of Medicine and Surgery," 

 for the year ending 30th June, 1846. We give the contract price 

 of a number of articles, and the price then current. We present it 



* Disease vs. the Sword. — The number of our troops in Mexico who have perished 

 in battle bears no proportion to those who have fallen victims to the climate anil the ex- 

 posure consequent on army life. The second Pennsylvania regiment consisted originally 

 of 1,137 men. Only 8 were killed in action, while no fewer than 213 died from disease 

 induced by the climate, &c. Company H, of the Massachusetts regiment, left Boston 

 with 80 men, and, although it has been in no action, this number was reduced to 1 8 on 

 the 8th of April last, when the small remnant was at San Angel. This had been 

 caused by death, desertion, discharge, and left in hospitals, on the road from Vera Cruz 

 to Mexico. — Daily Republican. 



