Next to the Governor, the Chief Medical Officer must be the most important man in the establishment.  He is to be concerned with professional business only, and to see that all under him are to be devoted in the same way.  For this purpose there must be an end to the system of requisitions.  There must be a Steward, taking his orders from the Governor alone, and administering a simple and liberal system of diets and appliances of all sorts.  It is his business to provide everything for the consumption of the establishment, and to keep the contractors up to their duty.  The Treasurer’s function speaks for itself.  All the accounts and payments under the Governor’s warrant are in his charge.

There is one more office, rendered necessary by the various and active service always going on,—­the superintendent of that service, or Captain of the Wards.  He is to have the oversight of the orderlies, cooks, washers, and storekeepers; he is to keep order throughout the house; and he is to be referred to in regard to everything that is wanted in the wards, except what belongs to the department of the medical officers or the steward.

As for the medical department, there is now a training provided for such soldiers as wish to qualify themselves for hospital duty.  Formerly, the hospital was served by such men as the military officers thought fit to spare for the purpose; and they naturally did not send the best.  These men knew nothing of either cleaning wards or nursing patients.  Their awkwardness in sweeping and scouring and making beds was extreme; and they were helpless in case of anything being wanted to a blister or a sore.  One was found, one day, earnestly endeavoring to persuade his patient to eat his poultice.  It is otherwise now.  The women, where there are any, ought to have the entire charge of the sweeping and cleaning,—­the housemaid’s work of the wards; and as to the rest, the men of the medical-staff corps have the means of learning how to dress a blister, and poultice a sore, and apply plasters, lint, and bandages, and administer medicine, and how to aid the sick in their ablutions, in getting their meals with the least fatigue, and so on.

Of female nurses it is not necessary to say much in America, any more than in England or France.  They are not admissible into Regimental Hospitals, in a general way; but in great military and civil hospitals they are a priceless treasure.

The questions in regard to them are two.  Shall their office be confined to the care of the linen and stores, and the supplying of extra diets and comforts?  If admitted to officiate in the wards, how far shall that function extend?