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4 
(V) 
31. -All garrisons are small; the largest "being of two companies 
and only two of that size an the Brigade. 
32. —The guardhouse is usually in the basement under quarters or 
in a camarrine and is therefore always damp and unsuitable. 
33. -HORSES and mules have been nearly wiped out in places by surra# 
but nothing is known beyond that reported by the board on this disease. 
Their food is said to be improper (fit only for native ponies) and this 
may have so reduced vitality as to have made them liable to infections. 
If fed properly they may have resisted surra. 
34. -THE HOSPITALS are all established in native houses or in part 
of a convent. They are all in the upper story, dry, suitable, well 
ventilated, cool, and of cufficient air space, and sufficient size 
and bed capacity. A few native nipa and bamboo houses are used. 
Several needed repairs but it was difficult to get money for the pur¬ 
pose ana the rent is not large enough to deduct cost of repairs. 
Those inspected were in good condition as to police and order. Store 
rooms were often on the ground floor and unsuitable. For isolation 
separate tents or shacks are used. 
35. —THE HOSPITAL CORPS allowance, 4fo, is not large enough where 
the troops are divided into such small detachments occupying a country 
5$ would not be too large. When concentrated into regiments 3-l/2fo 
is sufficient in war, end 3$ in peace or even s-l/sfo or 25 per regi¬ 
ment in garrison. Likewise the number of non-commissioned officers 
is too small, l/6 of total, when there are so many one company stations. 
It should be one-fifth or one non-commissioned officer to every four 
privates or one for every station. We have been hard pressed to get 
non-commissioned officers. There are no matrons. 
The general appearance of the men is only fair, because it 
has been difficult to get clothing at outlying stations and their uni¬ 
forms are somewhat faded. Discipline has been good as a rule, there 
being but very small percentage of confinements and Courts-Martial. 
Habits and efficiency were good as far as could be learned on inspec¬ 
tions. Several cases of chronic alcoholism have occurred and I believe 
that these men are more prone to the diseased form than soldiers in 
the line, but the cause is unknown. The safety of the sick demands 
that"alcoholics in the Hospital Corps be eliminated and this is done 
as a rule. Equipment?is generally complete, pouches in field use 
more than a year are generally unfit for further service. All are in-/ 
structed five hours a week, but it is practically impossible to keep / 
this up. There ought to be some limit to the matter where we can de¬ 
clare the^rained in the elements. It seems to me that it should also 
be intermittent and not an interminable grind year in and out. to 
keep on as we now do is like compelling an officer to take a course 
of elementary arithmetic all his life, a lesson every week until he 
is sixty-four. We should be able to say a Hospital Corps man is a 
graduate sometime and omit further elementary work. Practically a 
Hospital Corps private though expected to be learned in everything 
from operating technique to driving the ambulance mules, is a special¬ 
ist, as is every employee in a civil hospital, for no man|s brain is 
big enough to make him absorb every detail of every position in a 
large hospital. Every man is kept on the work he can do best and this 
should be recognized and not compel him to^ever and over again : the 
lessons and lectures he will never have use for. There have been 
no desertions and only a few (colored) are married to natives as far 
as known. 
I 
36. -ICE in this Brigade is supplied from Manila to those in eas^ j 
reach, and from San Isidro, N.E.,Ice plant for the group of posts of 
which this station is the centre. , i 
J 
37. -INSPECTIONS are matte at least once a year by the Brigade In- m 
spector and the Brigade surgeon. The work this year has been inter- M 
rupted by the cholera epidemic. / ■ 
